The Boaz Connection
by Dima Ivanovich
Summary: Its two years after the incidents in Prague. Kurtis Trent is busy to revive the Lux Veritatis. Lara lost sight of him and is on a trail in Argentina. But unexpectedly they both come across something that brings them back to those events in Prague
1. Prologue

**The Boaz Connection**

_By Kramer_

**Prologue**

Kristina Boaz had been part of the evil sect Cabal. An organisation led by Pieter van Eckhardt, a madman and alchemist who believed he could revive the 'Nephilim race.' Together with the scientists Grand Muller and Kristina Boaz he had tried to do this but he got stopped by two people.

Adventurer Lara Croft had killed Pieter van Eckhardt and destroyed the 'sleeper' the first specimen of Nephilim. During her search for Eckhardt she had met Kurtis Trent, the last living member of the Lux Veritatis. They decided to work together to defeat the Cabal. While Lara took care of Eckhardt, Kurtis got in a fight with Kristina Boaz. She already had been made victim of her own work and deformed horrifically. It was her own leader Eckhardt who believed she was not loyal.

Kurtis killed her but got wounded badly and sprayed with a pesticide like liquid.

With the last strength she had in her weakened body she had raised up once again and managed to stab her skewer into Kurtis' back. She saw how he collapsed to the ground.

The same moment she heard a rustling sound and in the last seconds of her life she saw how a blade flew into her. A sharp pain in her neck and then the world went black and quiet. Like someone switched the television off in the middle of a program.

Kristina had no family or friends. In fact, everyone who would hear about her death would probably release a sigh of relief, the monster is dead. Because even before she turned into a hideous deformed creature, the word 'monster' did suit her perfectly.

Kurtis meanwhile grunted as he slowly lost his consciousness. He felt the terrible pain of his chest wound and his skin felt itchy because of the green grossness she had sprayed on him.

**I**

**Moscow, Two Years Later**

A thick blanket of snow covered the streets of the Russian capital as a black Mercedes made its way through the darkness. The snow was shining bright in the front lights of the car; the streets were not very crowded, not with this weather, not at this time of the day.

It was half past ten in the evening and people stayed in their houses to keep away from the freezing temperature. Some cafes showed some activities and homeless people gathered around iron barrels which they had set on fire.

The car continued its way until it reached a big building. Most of the windows looked dark but in the lobby and at the top floor there were some lights on.

The door swung open and a man in a long black coat got out. He took the low steps leading to the main entrance. A bouncer asked for his papers but when he saw his face he immediately opened the door.

The man took his ushanka from his head and shook some snowflakes out of his long brown hair. Another man walked to him and offered to take his hat and coat. "Welcome to our hotel, the conference room is on the top floor. The elevator is over there."

When he arrived at the top floor he saw how one of the doors was opened and everyone was already inside, waiting for him.

He rubbed his neck with a painful looking face and entered the conference room. All the people stood up and nodded politely.

One man who was sitting at the front row came to him and shook his hand. "Glad you are here. And don't worry. You're only five minutes late."

The man nodded and made his way to the desk at the front of the room. He checked the overhead projector and then cleared his throat to make sure everyone had his attention.

It became quiet in the room. His azure eyes stared into the group of people for a second before he began to talk.

"For those who perhaps haven't heard of me, my name is Kurtis Trent. I considered myself the last living member of the Lux Veritatis. Recent research proved that this was a mistake. There are more people in this world whose forefathers were part of this secret organisation. And I'm proud to take a leading role in the project to get them together and work together to make this world a little less evil."

He switched on the overhead projector and the screen showed a map of Europe. Kurtis pointed at the right corner of the sheet. "In the year 1119 the order of the Knights Templar was established in Jerusalem. They were in direct command of the Pope, their main target was to protect the pilgrims of the Holy Land. In 1291 they moved to Cyprus and the cult began to fall apart. One group of people who decided to leave the order formed an offshoot called the Lux Veritatis, Light of Truth. The Lux was an independent organisation and their main target did not focus on the Christian believe itself but on suppressing activities of alchemy and sorcery."

He remained silent for a few seconds and looked around before he continued. "Since the twelve hundreds the Lux Veritatis was in a constant battle with the Cabal. The Cabal is a dangerous, evil group formed around the person of Pieter van Eckhardt. This black alchemist created five so-called Obscura Paintings, which were…. Yes, what's it?"

One man in the front row had raised his arm. "Mr. Trent, we do appreciate you want to provide us with all this background information. But I think it's better if you inform us about our plans for the present day."

Kurtis was a little surprised by this, but could understand what the man said. "Yes, I got you. Well, as most of you know, Eckhardt managed to get these paintings together in 2003. He tried using them to revive The Sleeper but thanks to me he failed. However, the world will never be completely free of evil, and therefore I decided to investigate the possibilities of making the Lux Veritatis a big and more influential organisation again."

He placed another picture at the projector. The screen showed again a map of Europe but this time the cities of Moscow and Paris were coloured red and were joined together with a red line.

Kurtis cleared his throat. "I started my search in Russia because my father was born here. I managed to find a small group of people whose parents or grandparents were part of the Lux."

He smiled. "That group of people I'm talking to at this moment." The men in the room smiled too and nodded politely to each other.

"Our mission is to create cells across whole Europe and establish a network of informants. At this moment we have two, one in Paris and one here, in Moscow. Plus, across the world we have some free agents."


	2. Patagonia

**II**

**Patagonia, Argentina**

At this time of the day the heat was almost unbearable. Ivan Aros, bartender of a café in a little town somewhere near the Rio Chubut was wiping the sweat from his forehead with the teacloth on his shoulder.

Patagonia was a lonely area, only one percent of the entire Argentinean population lived here. Most of them were sheep farmers. Others tried to earn a living out of tourists, lots of backpackers came here to explore the mountains and plains.

It was not very crowded today. The only customer sat at the far end of the room, near the window, and was almost completely covered in the shadow from the blinds.

He took the teacloth he had just been wiping his head with and held it under the tap for two seconds. Then he started to clean the wooden tables one by one, at the end he reached the table were the customer sat.

A young lady was leaning with her back against the wall, balancing on two chair-legs. In the table in front of her stood the bottle of Corona she had ordered ten minutes ago.

She was wearing army boots, some kaki shorts and a tight camo top. Her long brown hair was tied into a braid and rested at one of her shoulders. Some shades lay at the tip of her nose.

"We're about to close." Ivan said. "Siësta."

The woman nodded. "I go after I finished my drink", she said in Spanish. But with heavy English accent.

"Are you on holiday here?" Ivan asked interested while he began to empty the ashtrays into a big dustbin.

"No, I'm an archaeologist. I'm looking for caves and temples of your native culture."

The man looked surprised. "Oh really? I got a lot of old books and maps of this area, made by the first settlers who arrived her. If you come back this evening I can show you some."

The lady smiled politely. "Maybe, thanks anyway."


	3. Traces

**III **

**Traces**

It was late night when Kurtis returned to his apartment. Not far from the hotel where he just had been giving the lecture about the future of the Lux Veritatis. After his speech he had spoken to a few people about their role in the brand new organisation. Most of them would function as informants, gathering information and creating files of everything that could be involved with alchemy or other kinds of witchcraft. Other people had promised to invest money to pay for communication equipment, weapons and transport. Some of them had shady backgrounds. Kurtis' plan was first to get as many suitable people involved as possible. With the current group of about 75 people with LV backgrounds he already got more then he had expected when he started the whole project.

But as soon as the organisation was up and running they probably should get rid of the less suitable people. "It's like a kite", Kurtis said to himself while walking upstairs to the bedroom, "first you need to have someone to hold it for you, so you can start running. But as soon as you run far enough the person could let go and the kite could fly up in the air."

He walked into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror, and he was looking at a tired man. He turned the tap on and made a bowl of his hands. With a sigh of relief he washed his face with the cold water. At the same time he felt the pain in his neck again and grunted. He looked in the mirror again and felt a light dizziness; he grabbed the sink with both his hands and took a deep breath.

Since he came back from Prague he sometimes had this dizzy spells. In the first few weeks he thought it was a side-effect of the healing process of his wound. He took his shirt off and carefully touched the scar on his belly. But it was almost two years ago now and he still had moments of dizziness sometimes. He kept saying to himself it perhaps was a psychological effect, he had been through some emotional moments. But deep inside he knew that couldn't be the reason. He took a strip of painkillers from the shelf above the sink and swallowed two with a swig of water. Five seconds later his stomach twisted and he threw up both the painkillers together with a bit of green slime.

"Right", he said while hitting the sink with his fist. "That's enough; I go to see a doctor tomorrow."

When he had showered and brushed his teeth he walked to his bedroom. He took his wallet from the desk in a corner of the room and stared at a little picture he had kept there for two years. A brown haired woman smiled at him. After the incidents in Prague he had never seen Lara again. She had visited him in the hospital and had told him she wasn't the kind of person to stick around with other people. It did not bother him at that time. But in the months to follow he realised he wanted to speak with her again about what happened in that building. It would do his mental condition good; the dramatic moments still followed him. But every time he decided to start and find out where she lived something prevented him from doing it, but he couldn't explain what.

"Good morning Mr. Trent, have a seat please. What can I do for you?"

Kurtis sat down in the uncomfortable chair in front of the doctor's desk. He smiled shyly and then told what was wrong with him.

"Do you have any idea what could cause this?" the doctor asked.

"I thought it might be a mental problem", said Kurtis. "You see, I served in the army for a few years and you sometimes hear these stories…"

The doctor nodded and then pointed to a room next to his office with a sweep of his right arm. "I think it's best if I examine you", he said.

Five minutes later they sat in the office again. "Well, I can't find anything unusual Mr. Trent. I think it's best if I take a few blood samples and send them to the laboratory. The results will be available in a few days. I will call you then."

Nine days later the telephone rang.

"Trent."

"Good afternoon Mr. Trent. It's Dr. Sjarapov speaking. I just got the results of your blood samples and…"

"What do the results say?"

"I'm sorry Mr. Trent… but we have found a poison in your blood. Erm… the strange thing is that it is an unknown poison. They contacted other laboratories across the world but nobody ever saw this."

Kurtis remained silent. The words of the doctor echoed through his head. He knew what this would mean.

"The poison has been in your blood for quite a long time. Two years we think. But it seems it slowly multiplies itself. We can't say anything about what it will do and how your body will react. And we don't have any treatment. I'm sorry."

Kurtis switched the phone off. He sat down and began to think what his options were. "Boaz… that damn woman… although he had killed her, their final battle had left its marks …"

He realised that the only person that could have had an antiserum was Kristina Boaz herself.

An evening sun was sinking slowly, casting a surrealistic orange colour over the plains and hills of this lonely area. It was hot and dry weather and the soil was suffering heavily from erosion since enormous amounts of sheep graze here every day. Bits of brown-reddish sand and little stones rolled downwards from time to time as Lara made her way uphill.

From this point she could see the little village lying in a valley, a few miles away. This evening she had gone back to the café and talked to Ivan the bartender. In his house he had a few maps and journals of the first Spanish settlers that arrived here, a couple of hundred years ago.

He had been very hospitable and gave her everything she could use. Back home in England Lara had found out that beneath these hills she could find numerous of caves with secret treasure rooms and hidden temples, a remainder of the native culture. Very few people knew exactly were to find these places. The Spaniards had killed almost the complete native population of South America.

Lara had asked Ivan if he wanted something in return for all the documents he gave her. "A share in the profit if you find anything", he said with a smile. "But I doubt you'll do."

After more then an hour of walking Lara sat down on a small rock and wiped some sweat from her forehead. She took a bottle of water from her backpack and poured some on her shoulders. It was evening and she was high in the hills but the temperature was still boiling.

She browsed through Ivan's documents. One of the most interesting things was an old poem that someone wrote on the backside of a map. It described a hidden temple somewhere in these surroundings. According to the poem she could find something very special there.

_El comienzo del viajero con un V_

_Está después el O_

_Sigue la serpiente_

_Entra en el cuarto_

_Si derrota a protectores_

_Encuentra una recompensa_

_En tres tazas d'oro_

_El líquido diablo_

She studied the first two lines. "The traveller starts with a V", she whispered. "Well, what is that suppose to mean…? And next is an O…"

She looked around the caves; maybe somebody drew a V somewhere. She began to walk around, carefully examining the rocks to see if there was a V.

She walked down a small pathway between two walls of rocks but did not find anything. She ended up at a dead end. The rock in front of her did not look climbable. From here another small pathway took her back the way she came. The rocks separating the two pathways seemed a lot friendlier and she decided to climb it to get a better view of the area.

She began to work her way up, carefully looking where to place her feet for the next step. It wasn't an easy climb but eventually she reached the top. It certainly was too steep to climb for the sheep and that explained why the top of the hill was covered with grass, bushes and small trees. But she still couldn't find any V's.

She walked to edge of the hilltop and looked down to the little path where she just had been walking. The other path went exactly the same way. The oblong-shaped rocks she was standing on stood right in the middle of this narrow passage. The two little pathways formed a V together.

It took a few seconds before she realised what she just said to herself. She had found the V! She was standing right in the middle of it!

She took a look at the poem again. "And next is the O… maybe the opening of a cave…" she said. Lara began to look around. One particular group of bushes in the middle of the grassy hilltop could be hiding the entrance. She made her way through the thigh mass of twigs and leaves until she ended up on a clear spot. A small circle surrounded by the green bushes, she could only see the blue sky above her. Lara smiled, she had guessed right. Right in front of her she saw the O, an entrance leading into a cave.

She grabbed the parchment with the poem again and read the next two lines: "he follows the snake, and ends up in the room."

Lara felt the usual adrenalin boost, she checked her backpack, touched her 9mm handgun for a second, just to make sure it was still there. Then she drew a flare and walked into the dark cave.

"Home sweet home", she said with a cynical giggle.


	4. The Curse of the Snake

**IV **

**The Curse of the Snake**

While waiting for someone to pick up the phone he looked through the window of his bedroom. It had been snowing the whole night and the streets were covered under a white blanket. Kurtis walked downstairs and took a bottle of orange juice and an egg from the fridge whilst holding the phone between his cheek and shoulder.

"Hello."

"Ah Boris, finally, what took you so long?"

"I was taking a shower, what are you calling for?"

"I think I got a first job for you, as our brand new Lux Veritatis informant."

"Don't mention that name."

Boris was an old friend of Kurtis and ex-KGB agent. With his experiences a valuable member of the new Lux Veritatis. But after years of serving in the Russian secret service he had developed a habit of being paranoid and making things more secret and important then they really were.

Kurtis grinned. "Don't play the secret agent, nobody is overhearing us."

"Sure?"

"Yes. Now, listen. I want you to look for any information you have on Kristina Boaz."

"What you need it for?"

"That's not important now. I'll explain later."

"Ok, wait a minute. I have a look in my files."

Kurtis poured himself a glass of orange juice and took a piece of bread, a plate and a pan from the kitchen cabin. He heard how Boris switched on his laptop.

"Just a second… it takes a while to start up", he muttered.

"Take your time", Kurtis said and put the pan with the egg on the cooker.

"Ok. Here I have her record, Kristina Boaz, daughter of a German mother and Argentinean father. Was born in 1947 in Buenos Aires and died in 2003 in Prague."

Kurtis nodded and a wicked smile appeared at his face. "Who killed her?"

"Oh, I have that somewhere… wait a minute… she was killed by a Kurtis Tr… you bastard! Don't fool me around with your stupid jokes. What you want to know?"

Kurtis sat down at the kitchen table and began to peal his boiled egg. "Sorry, couldn't resist. I want to know where she had her houses and offices."

It remained silent for a while and Kurtis could hear him typing. He cut his egg in slices and put them on the piece of bread. "Do you have information on that?"

"Of course I have", Boris replied. "Here it is. She had an office in her house in Buenos Aires and a second, smaller office, in the Strahov. But that building was demolished last year…. Oh, she also hired an apartment in Prague."

Kurtis took a mouthful of his egg sandwich. "Right, do you have an address of these houses in Buenos Aires and Prague?"

"I do. Shall I e-mail them to you?"

"Yes please. My plan is to go there and look for some important information."

Boris coughed. "After this help, I deserve a little explanation."

"Ok, they found traces in my blood of an unknown poison. Presumably the green liquid Boaz sprayed on me."

"I see… right, I will help you of course… that's what the order is for. You first start looking in Prague?"

"Yes."

"Fine, I'll send Bex to help you. She's a member from the Parisian LV-cell. Born in England but lives in France since 1994."

Kurtis nodded. "Great, thanks. Send me the details on where to meet her together with the other information in your email."

The light of her flare was casting tall shadows on the walls of the cave. It was obvious this tunnel represented the snake, mentioned in the poem. And it seemed to be going on for ages. But if the ancient text was right she should eventually end up in 'the room.'

At least it was cooler in here then outside. The path went slightly steep, so every meter took her deeper into the ground. Sunlight had no change here. Lara stood still for a moment and looked back. The flare was almost out and the light from the entrance of the cave was out of sight. She had only one more flare in her backpack.

She continued walking, the flame in her hand got smaller and smaller and finally disappeared. It was completely dark now. Lara took her backpack from her shoulder and opened it. In the few seconds she needed to grope her way to the last flare a strange feeling lurked inside her head. The complete darkness brought up some unpleasant memories. She laid a hand at her forehead for a while and took a breath. Visions of the past flew through her mind like a slideshow. The run to the opening of the pyramid, the rumbling sound behind her, the voice of Werner, and finally, the darkness. Her accident in Egypt still haunted her memory.

She released a sigh of relief when she drew the flare. A save circle of light appeared around her. But she knew it was the last flare, she hesitated. She could go back and buy a flashlight, and return here tomorrow. She looked into the darkness in front of her and then back the way she came from. But then Lara's curiosity and urge for adventure defeated her fear to be sentenced from light. She continued her way deeper into the snake.

After another long time of walking she saw something in the distance. She began to walk faster and finally saw a bright light. There was light over there, but it was still far away.

While she was getting closer to the light in front of her, the second flare began to flicker. She threw it away and began to run. After a short sprint she reached a wooden door, firmly set into the wall. Two torches were standing on both sides of it. She took one of the torches and examined the door. An inscription was written on it. "Esto es un lugar terrible", she whispered.

It took her a few seconds to translate it. Just like the poem it was in Spanish. "This is a terrible place."

Lara felt a shiver running down her spine and she involuntarily looked around her. She opened the door and carefully took a few steps inside. She bumped with her foot in something; she bent forward to look what she had hit. The hollow eyes of a human skull looked into her. The same moment she heard a rustling sound and as a reflex she ducked. A second later she saw an enormous blade coming out of the wall; it missed her head by centimetres before it disappeared in the opposite wall.

Lara stood up and began to run, a second blade popped out of the wall, but this time she could easily jump over it. A third one came from the ceiling, still running Lara dived to the ground, rolled and stood up again to avoid the fourth one from the floor. She hugged the wall, waited for the blade to disappear and continued running again. She saw a second door, only be separated from her by a deep pit. From here she could see flames coming out of it. A running jump sent her over the pit and in front of the door.

With both hands she opened it and entered a tall room. It was extremely light in here and her eyes had to get used to it after the darkness of the caves.

Lara wiped a strand of hair out of her face and looked around. Bricks were set into the walls and the floor was covered with tiles of the same type. Who did build this? A staircase in front of her was leading up to a round platform. Big grated doors prevented her from going into archways in all four directions. She could see torches everywhere.

She carefully walked further into the room. Just in front of the stairs she saw a golden bowl filled with water standing on a low pedestal.

She took the parchment with the poem again and read the last four lines. "Defeat the guards. And receive a reward. In three golden cups. The liquid devil."

Lara examined the bowl. It was gold, but not a cup, and it was only a single one. She carefully smelled the water. "Just ordinary water", she muttered. "No liquid devil…"

She walked away from the pedestal and began to climb the stairs. After a few minutes of climbing she reached the round platform. In the middle she saw another pedestal, but bigger then the one downstairs. She examined it closely and saw three empty slots. On the surface she saw an inscription: Tres tazas d'oro. Three golden cups.

"They are gone", Lara hissed. "Someone went in here before me and took the three golden cups." She angrily hit the pedestal with her fist. A second later she heard a rattling sound below her. She looked down and the four grated doors lifted and groups of men in wooden masks entered the room.


	5. Prague

**V **

**Prague**

Kurtis got a slap in the face of the sudden coldness when he stepped out of the taxi in the centre of the Czech capital. He paid the driver and although it was only a few hundred metres to the café he had agreed to meet Bex he tucked his hands deep into the pockets and folded the collar of his jacket around his neck. "Why didn't the Cabal build their damn headquarters on Jamaica", he muttered and he could see his breath as little puffs of steam in the air.

He checked his notebook for the name of the bar where Boris had arranged their meeting plus a description of Bex. "Short, red haired girl, smokes a lot", he read from his notes.

A few minutes later he entered the café and tried to look around without being suspicious. Most people where men so it wasn't difficult to find the right person. At the far end of the room near the window sat a short, red haired girl. She was wearing some jeans and a maroon-red t-shirt with long sleeves. Her messy red hair was covering her ears and curled up at the end, she had laid her feet at another chair and was staring into a glass of Scotch in front of her. A cigarette balanced between her index and middle finger.

Boris had insisted that they should use a code to make sure nobody would spy on them. Kurtis walked to the table and pointed at the chair she had her feet on. "Is this seat available?"

The young woman looked up and smiled. "Who will take it?" she said.

"The light of truth", Kurtis replied.

She smiled again and reached out to shake hands. "From the moment you entered I knew you were the right one but old Boris wanted to do it this way."

Kurtis sat down and smiled too. "Yeah, he never healed from the overdose of paranoia he got at the KGB. Can I get you anything to drink?"

Bex pointed at the glass in front of her. "No thank you. This is my second one, better for both of us not to take a third."

Kurtis snapped his fingers and a waiter came to their table. "Do you speak English?" he asked. The man shook his head.

"Deutsch vielleicht?" This time the man smiled and nodded.

"Ich möchte gern eine tasse kaffee."

The man walked away and returned two minutes later with a cup of coffee.

"Right", said Kurtis while taking a sip of his coffee. "Today we will take a look in the old apartment of Boaz. It is presumably taken over by someone else, but maybe we will find some traces."

"And what if we don't?" asked Bex.

Kurtis took a piece of paper from his pocket and spread it out on the table. "Look, we got several places to look. The first one is the apartment. The second one is her house and office in Buenos Aires."

Bex too the last swig of her whiskey and bent over to watch the photo's closely. "Who took these pictures?"

Kurtis was a bit unsettled as she was practically touching his face with her nose. "Boris", he said. "And some other Lux Veritatis informants I don't know by name."

The woman snorted and sank back in her chair again. "You don't know every member personally? Oh, you smell nice, by the way."

Kurtis put the paper back in his pocket again. "No I don't know everyone personal, and to be honest I think we should screen some of them since I'm not sure they are fully trustful, especially one of our investors." He looked at her. "It's important to keep our relations professional." Hoping she would catch the double meaning of this according to her comment about his aftershave.

A short while later Kurtis rang the doorbell of the apartment that once was owned by Kristina Boaz. It took while before a male voice came through the intercom.

"Can we come in?" Kurtis asked. "We have to ask you something really important."

The intercom remained silent for a while. "Okay… you can enter…" said the voice.

They took the elevator upstairs and walked to the right apartment. Before they reached it a young man opened the door and looked suspiciously at them.

"What you want?" he said with a heavy Czech accent.

"A friend of ours lived here and we wondered if she left some belongings behind."

The man nodded but didn't seem to feel any more comfortable. "Yeah, when I bought house… all things were still here… owner was gone"

"What did you do with it?" Bex asked.

"Police took some… but did not find… err… how do you say… solution… and said I can have all of it. I sold most of chairs and tables but I have books and err… papers and photos"

Kurtis nodded. "Can we have a look at it? It has a… great emotional value… to us… she was our friend."

The man let them in and showed them some cardboard boxes he had stuffed with documents and books. Kurtis and Bex began to browse through them. They found some photo albums and a lot of dossiers about the Cabal and Boaz' activities.

"This is indeed of great value", Kurtis whispered and grinned. "Maybe it includes a list of medicines and drugs they used in the sanatorium."

Bex took some under her arm and showed them to the man who was looking a little surprised at them. "Can we take this with us?"

"Sure", the man said. "But… if you are her friends… do you know where she is? Maybe you should talk to the police."

"No", said Bex firmly. "We… already did. And now we must go. Come on honey."

A minute later she and Kurtis were standing in the elevator.

"Why did you call me honey?" he asked.

"To let him think we are a couple", she said dryly. "To leave a less suspicious impression."

Kurtis couldn't suppress a laugh. "Less suspicious? He will call the police any minute I think. He looked at us if we were a bunch of Mafiosi."

**-**

Lara was a bit overwhelmed for a few seconds by the sudden entrance of these tribesmen. They were dressed in traditional clothing of the native people and they were armed with spears and wooden shields. The group of about 40 men quickly made their way to the stairs while yelling a war cry with high pitched voices.

Lara drew her pistols and began to shoot, the front row of the garrison collapsed. While continuing shooting she ran down the stairs. The group scattered and the men looked anxiously for safe spots, some of them threw their spears at Lara but she could easily avoid them. She stopped shooting and waited what the remaining tribesmen would do. When nothing happened she lowered her pistols and began to reload them. Immediately the men stood up and ran the way they came from, through the four archways.

Lara holstered her guns and walked to one of the men she shot. She examined him closely and discovered a little silver amulet on a necklace around his neck. She took it and put it in her pocket. She looked around; all the four archways seemed identically. Lara randomly took one of them and walked carefully under the raised grated door and found herself in a long straight hallway. She followed it down until she reached a dead end. But in the wall in front of her she saw a big wooden lever. She firmly pulled it and waited for something to happen, it remained silent for a while but then a thundering sound made her grab onto the wall to keep her balance. A second later the floor beneath her feet began to shake and some of the tiles gave way, leaving deep dark pitches behind. Lara turned around and began to run the way she came. She carefully zigzagged through the hallway to avoid the holes in the collapsing floor. The thundering noise became louder and more and more pieces of the floor collapsed in front of her eyes. She jumped over a big hole and made her way to the side, hugging the wall. She wouldn't make it to the end if it kept going like this. She looked up and discovered some loose bricks in the wall; she began to climb and eventually started to traverse sideways. She successfully reached the iron grating when suddenly the whole wall and a bit of ceiling came down. She fell on her back and held her arms around her head to protect her against the bricks falling down. Lara grunted and stood up, brushing some dirt and marl-like dust from her clothes, she walked back into the central hall. She breathed heavily and walked to the bowl of water in the middle of the room and splashed some cold water in her face. "I guess I took the wrong door", she muttered.

She walked around and carefully watched the four archways; something should tell her where they would lead. A second look told her each archway had a small symbol painted on the wall above it. But she never had seen such symbols before and couldn't read them.

Lara sat down and retrieved the papers Ivan had given her from her backpack and start browsing through them to see if they would provide her some information. After a few minutes of searching she found a simple sketch of what could be this hall. Underneath the drawing someone had wrote down a quick note containing the four symbols from the archways. One of the symbols was underlined and the owner of the book had written 'safe route north' next to it. Lara wrapped the parchment and took her compass, just to make sure; the symbol was indeed painted above the northern archway.

Lara cheerfully putted the parchments and the compass back in her backpack and took the archway which was meant to be the safe route.

She ended up in another long hallway but this time it did not end at a wall with a lever but an enormous door. Lara tried to open it but failed. She took few steps back and kicked it firmly but the door did not move a millimetre. It did not seem to have a lock, only a little round shaped slot in the middle. Suddenly she remembered something; she reached in her pocket and retrieved the little amulet she found at the necklace of the tribesman. It fitted perfectly in the slot and with a crack the door swung open. She now entered an even bigger hallway then the one she came from, with walls reaching hundreds of metres above her. She looked up and realised it wasn't a hall but a mountain-pass; she could see the blue sky high above her. Lara carefully continued her way in the same direction, admiring the enormous rocky slopes left and right of her. The pass got wider and wider and developed into a valley. Suddenly she recognised windows, doors and steps. It was a pueblo, a village of hundreds of little houses chiselled out in the rocks. The houses and flat spaces consisted of hundreds of plateaus and went uphill like a staircase, connected with wooden ladders. Between the pathway she was walking on, and the first houses, she saw green fields with all kinds of vegetation and a lot of crops like rice, vegetables and corn. She kept walking until she reached something that could be the town square or whatever you would call that in this kind of place. People came from their houses and looked surprised at her. Lara tried talking in Spanish to them but they shook their heads and smiled politely. Finally some of them began to talk to each other, in a language Lara never heard of. They pointed at her and nodded to each other. Then a young child ran away and climbed one of the wooden ladders leading to a big building in front of her. Five minutes later he came back with a woman dressed in the same clothes as the guards Lara had encountered in the hall, including a mask.

The woman held up her left hand with her palm turned to her face and Lara decided to do the same, assuming this was a way of saying hello.

The woman smiled and lowered her arm. "Welcome in our village stranger", she said in Spanish. "How did you find us and what brings you here?"

Lara pointed to the direction she came from. "I came from your underground temple and…"

The woman interrupted her. "How did you get in there and how did you open the door to our village, the lost city of Matorana Civella?"

Lara showed the silver amulet she got from the tribesman and which she used to open the door. The woman took a few steps back and then made a short bow. "You found the secret entrance… you survived the traps and defeated our guards. I must have much respect for you, stranger. But tell me, what are you looking for here?"

Lara held up three fingers. "Three cups of gold, they are supposed to be in your temple. But I did not find them."

The woman nodded. "Let me invite you to come to my house, I will tell you everything about it. My name is Meila and I'm the leader of this little tribe."

Lara nodded politely. "Lara Croft, adventurer. I'm pleased to see your people decided to put a woman in charge."


	6. Results and Mistakes

**VI **

**Results and Mistakes**

With a sigh of relief Kurtis dropped the box with documents on the bed of his hotel room. Bex put her pile of files on the floor and sat down on one of the cheap uncomfortable chairs. She fetched a packet of cigarettes from her hip pocket and offered one to Kurtis. He gratefully accepted one of her Marlboro's and while inhaling the sharp taste of his cigarette he took the first stationary-case of documents and spread them out on the table.

"She didn't label the damn things, so I guess we just have to go through them one by one to see if there is anything that leads us to the possible whereabouts of an antiserum."

Bex looked sceptical when browsing through the first few sheets. "And do you have any idea what's the name of the poison that you got in your blood?"

Kurtis grinned and showed her his cigarette. "Nicotine I guess?"

"Save me from your cynical sense of humour, don't you think we are looking for a needle in a haystack at the moment?" said Bex with a sigh. "Don't you have any idea where to look first?"

Kurtis remained silent for a while. "She turned into an ugly deformed monster with the help of one of Muller's creations", he finally said.

Bex frowned. "Grand Muller, the biologist? That might give us a trace; try looking for documents concerning that bio dome. It's more likely we find something there then in the administration of Boaz' department."

"Yes, but if that's true we might start looking somewhere else. Where did Muller have his head office?"

Bex hauled her shoulders. "Rome, but I doubt it's still there. Let's look in this paperwork first, who knows what we can find?"

After half an hour of browsing, reading and studying Kurtis snapped his fingers and waved a little piece of paper in the air. "We got something Rebecca, an e-mail from Muller to Boaz."

Bex bended over to look what her colleague had found. "Give that to me, I can't read it if you keep waving it in the air. And don't call me Rebecca, it reminds me of my mother."

She took the sheet from Kurtis and read:

_Kristina,_

_Thank you very much for the LD-48, I think it will be a great addition to my research. I understand the emotional meaning it has for you because of your mother. I think I will use it in my latest creation which I call 'the pod'. _

_I ensure you this unique material is in safe hands and you, I and the whole Cabal will be very happy with the final version of the pod now I got this poison to equip it with._

_Regards,_

_Grand_

Bex whistled between her teeth. "Good job handsome, it seems this is the poison that Boaz shot at you."

Kurtis nodded happily and underlined the first line of the e-mail. "We now have something to look for, LD-48. I have no idea what it stands for but it might appear in lists and other documents we have got here."

Bex took a second cigarette from her packet and lit it. "But there's one thing that puzzles me", she muttered with the cigarette between her lips. "Why does some toxic material has an emotional value for someone? Did her mother give it to her, or what?"

Kurtis stood up, walked to the balcony and shook his head. "I don't know, but I don't think that's really important now. We made some progress." And he carefully rubbed his neck.

"Is the pain getting worse?" Bex asked.

"Yeah", Kurtis said without looking back. "It's horrible sometimes, especially during the night. Pain killers don't help." He stretched his arms and kept staring out of the window.

Bex stood up and opened her suitcase. "The night is still young, pity if I would go to my own room by now already. What about a glass of Glenfiddich?"

Kurtis turned around and looked surprised. "Excuse me? What you got there, a bottle of whiskey? How did you get that in here?"

Bex giggled and took two plastic cups from the bathroom. "Who cares, some Scotch might relief you from that terrible pain."

Kurtis smiled. "I doubt it, but I can't refuse such offer", and he took one of the cups.

A while later they sat on Kurtis bed, with their heads leaning to the back wall. The content of the bottle had already reached way down the label and they both acted unnaturally cheerful and funny.

"Well, it's been a pleasure. But maybe it's time for this little girl to go to her own hotel room now" said Kurtis followed by a loud snicker. Bex shook her head and a wicked smile appeared at her face. "Oh, but aren't Lux Veritatis warriors supposed to protect each other every time of the day?"

"No, seriously", Kurtis continued with a thick voice. "This is a one person bedroom, and it's not meant to be occupied by two, otherwise it would…"

Bex didn't let him finish his sentence as she rolled over and kissed him on the lips. It lasted for several seconds before Kurtis gently pushed her away from him. "We shouldn't do this; this is a very bad idea." He muttered with his eyes half closed.

Bex sat on her knees in front of him and took her top off with a majestic sweep. "Are you sure?"

Kurtis remained silent for a second and then reached out to embrace her. "Oh, to hell with it, nobody sees us."

The next morning Kurtis woke up of an early sunshine warming his face. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a few minutes. In bits and pieces the events of last night came back to his mind. He sat up and immediately grabbed his head with a painful grunt.

"Good morning."

He looked to where to voice came from. Bex sat in one of the chairs with nothing but his t-shirt on, smoking a cigarette and looking in his wallet.

"Who's this?" she said, holding the small photo of Lara he kept there.

"Why are you going through my things?" he whispered with a dry throat and he looked at her while trying to keep his eyelids up.

"Answer my question, who is this?"

He sighted and stood up. "She is someone I met two years ago. We didn't even have a relationship; we went through some emotional moments together. And for some reason I keep that photo of her in my wallet, she didn't even gave it to me, I tore it out of a newspaper."

Kurtis walked to the bathroom, turned the tap on and splashed some water in his face.

"Where did you meet her?" said Bex while she was busy putting her own clothes back on.

"In Prague, we crossed paths in the Strahov."

The red haired girl shook her head. "That's the most transparent crap I ever heard. You always tell everyone it was you who killed Eckhart. There wasn't anybody to help you."

Kurtis said nothing.

"I'm going back to Paris. Boris will contact you when we are going to take a look in Boaz' house in Argentina. See you later, Demon Hunter." And with that she took her suitcase and closed the door behind her.

Kurtis walked back into the room and angrily threw a towel on the table. "Why I am such an idiot?" he said loud.

Lara followed Meila up the ladder to her house. She was still dressed in the same clothing as the guards from the temple, including the wooden mask. They crossed a plateau were a group of women was busy colouring wool in large tray filled with red paint. They climbed a second ladder and then entered Meila's house. Lara saw a large room with two windows overlooking the valley and a balcony. The floor was covered with carpets of the same red colour she had seen in the tray outside. The room contained some simple wooden furniture, including four chairs, a low table and two cupboards. The walls were decorated with masks, beads and other wooden objects.

"Please sit down", said Meila and took her wooden mask off. Lara could now see her face, Meila seemed about forty-five years old. Her dark brown eyes had a trustful glance and her pitch black hair rested casually on her shoulders.

Lara sat down at one of the low chairs in front of the table and the woman took place on the opposite chair. She took off her poncho revealing two bare arms and shoulders, her skin had a vague reddish tan.

She smiled friendly at Lara and then yelled something in her own language. Two seconds later a man came in carrying a plate full of rice, fruits and nuts. He put it at the table, nodded politely to both woman and left the room.

"Welcome in my house", said Meila. "You seem hungry, so feel free to eat. And while you are eating I will tell something about the cups you were looking for. But I also want to know how you came here and why you wanted to have the cups." She had a deep voice with an unusual timbre and her way of speaking was like a real leader, certain but friendly.

Lara took some fruits and nodded. "Thank you for your hospitality. But about why I wanted to get my hands on the cups is not an easy question to answer." She remained silent for a second.

"What would you do with them if you had them in your possession?" asked Meila.

"Nothing", said Lara. "I put them in a display case in my house and look at them. Your face tells me you don't believe it, but that's the truth. I travel the world in search for hidden treasures and artefacts, the adventure of this gives me the accomplishment I look for. It's my life."

Meila looked at her for a while and ate some of the food. "It's hard to believe you", she said finally. "Many people from outside this country have come here and most of them were looking for goods, money and power. And they didn't hesitate to kill to get what they wanted; only a small part of the people that once inhabited this country is left."

Lara nodded slowly. "I understand what you are trying to say. But I wasn't planning to sell the golden cups or to use them for any purpose that would hurt other people. I just want them."

"Why?"

"I… I don't know."

"I lived a few years outside this village", said Meila. "I learned Spanish and talked to a lot of people and tried to understand their culture. I've also heard of people like you, doing things not for money but for the adventure, the honour, accomplishment. I don't fully understand it but I do respect it, you are a brave person. You have experienced a lot, I can see that in your eyes, you have seen death; you have seen the end of the world. But you did overcome this and that's a gift. I'm sure if you had the golden cups they would be in safer hands then they are now."

Lara wasn't able to respond to this immediately. This lady seemed to look right through her, how could she tell she had seen death?

"Who has them now?" she said.

Meila closed her eyes for a few seconds. "It's not about the golden cups you know, it's about the content of the cups."

Lara almost jumped up and grabbed her backpack. "I know, I got a poem with clues how to get here and it mentioned that." She took the paper and read the last line of the poem: "In three cups of gold, the liquid devil."

Meila took the paper from her and read it quickly. "Translated from our language, that's why it doesn't rhyme. The cups do indeed contain the liquid devil, the strongest poison on earth."

Lara frowned. "And it was stored in your temple?"

"Yes, it was created long time ago by a witch doctor. It was kept in the temple for hundreds of years, even the Spanish colonists couldn't get their hands on it. The small bowl of water in the middle of the temple is an antidote. But it works only if you take it less then five minutes after you got infected with poison."

"But when did it disappear? And who took it?" asked Lara.

Meila stood up and walked to the balcony, Lara followed her. "You are the second foreigner in our history to find this valley. Years ago, before I was born, another group of European people came here and they snatched the poison. I think it was 1948 in your calendar."

Lara looked out over the pueblo and the flat green fields, the steep mountain slopes and the sky high above her. "That's a long time ago", she said. "Do you have any idea what they did with it or where they took it?"

"No, I'm sorry."

"What kind of people were they?"

"I wasn't there, but people said it was a woman joined by group of armed men."

"Didn't they leave anything behind that could be a trace to their whereabouts?" asked Lara.

The other woman turned away and walked back inside the house. "There is, actually", she said. "That woman lost her bag. We still have it somewhere here. I sometimes show it to people from here that never have been outside this village."

Meila opened one of the cupboards and retrieved a leather handbag. Lara took it from her and examined it closely. It was a very old fashioned model, which was not surprising since the woman lost it in 1948.

She put it on the table opened it carefully. It contained a mouldered packet of cigarettes, a tin water flask, a small notebook and finally a handgun.

Lara opened the notebook, little notes were scribbled down on every page and some photos in sepia were glued at the last few pages. She studied a few of the notes, some of them were written in Spanish, others in German. Lara wanted to put it back in bag and study the handgun when her eye met a little note written down on the first page.

It was a message for someone who would found the book if the owner lost it. It mentioned a street address in Buenos Aires and a name, Ulrike Boaz.

Lara frowned and began to dig in her memory. "Where did I hear that name before", she whispered. "Is it any help to you?" asked Meila.

Lara looked up. "Yes well, if I could take this booklet with me…"

The lady nodded. "Sure, if that will bring you closer to the golden cups. You want to leave now?"

Lara put the notebook in her backpack and stood up. "Yes, if you don't mind?"

"No, not at all. I will take you uphill to a safe route away from this village. But one thing, what is that kind of gun? I have never seen it before."

Lara looked at the handgun on the wooden table. "It's a Luger; it was a very common firearm in those days and standard equipment in the German army."

Half an hour later Lara was standing on a high hilltop overlooking the secret valley. Meila was standing next to her.

"I leave you here", the woman said. "I think you can find your way to the civilised world from here at your own."

Lara nodded politely. "Yes, I'm sure that'll be okay. Thank you for your hospitality and the information about those people who stole your cups."

Meila stared at her with her dark eyes. "You wanted to do the same, remember? But let's not get into a debate about that. I wish you luck in your search, and please don't tell anybody about the lost city of Matorana Civella."

Lara turned around and continued the walk uphill. "I won't", she said.


	7. A Dark History

**VII **

**A Dark History**

Kurtis Trent was taking a bath in his apartment in Moscow when his mobile phone rang. He reached out to clear his right hand with a towel and grabbed the phone from the bathroom table.

"Trent."

"Hi, it's me Bex."

Kurtis tried to react normally. "Hello."

"I got an e-mail from Boris today", she continued. "He can arrange a flight for us to Buenos Aires on Thursday. We will take a plane from Düsseldorf Germany at six in the morning."

Kurtis frowned. "Where do we meet?"

"Just outside the airport, he gave me a detailed description of the location. We will fly directly to Buenos Aires and from there another Lux Veritatis contact will pick us up and take us to Boaz' house."

"Okay", said Kurtis. "That seems all right to me and oh, Bex?"

"Yes?"

"About that night in Prague, I err… "

"It happened and I don't want to talk about it anymore. See you in Düsseldorf." And with that she switched her phone off.

Ten minutes later Kurtis sat fully dressed at his desk doing some paperwork. For the hundredth time he browsed a bit through the documents they found at the apartment in Prague. Suddenly his eye fell on a little album he did not spotted before. He read the first page: _Ulrike Boaz, Diary._

He felt a sudden feeling of excitement. The diary of Boaz' mother, what can we find in here? He enthusiastically began to read.

_The world is still at war. But in the meantime we fight our own little war, a war against time. It's the spring of 1944 and Pieter van Eckhart is kept prisoner in a Lux Veritatis stronghold, and we did not find out where._

_In the meantime we try to make a start with his great work. We have the possession of a chateau in the Bavarian Alps where we can practise our projects fully secretly. In a dark, underground facility, far away from the outside world. _

_We made a start with doing experiments on people. My heart is beating with joy when I walk past the cells with patients screaming in agony. Knowing that each of them will bring us closer to new discoveries. The moment we will be able to create Nephilim will be the greatest day in my life. _

Kurtis closed the book and stuck out his tongue in disgrace. "What a horrible lady", he muttered. "No wonder she gave birth to such pure hell."

Although some of its passages made him sick Kurtis decide to read some more in the diary. Perhaps it would lead him to more valuable information.

He found another entry that got his attention, it was written about two years after the first one.

_Today was a big day for several reasons. How happy we were when we heard the great Pieter van Eckhart was finally found and released. He has sworn revenge against the warriors of the Lux Veritatis.. All this events took place under rather unusual circumstances. The war is almost over and American troops are at the outskirts of Germany. The fall of the third Reich is only a matter of time. Together with another small group of people from the Berlin authorities and their elite troops we have decided to escape to South America before it is too late._

Kurtis had heard stories like this before. A lot of Germans fled from their country to South America at the end of the war and although the Israeli secret service tried to find them, a lot of them managed to stay hidden and spent the rest of their lives in peace.

And apparently one of them was Kristina Boaz' mother, who was not only part of the German authorities but also a member of the secret organisation Cabal.

He put the little booklet somewhere apart from the other documents and switched on his computer, time to do some financial administration. Kurtis checked his latest bank accounts and made some notes. Suddenly his eye felt on a deposit of 20.000 euros from a Russian company he never heard of. But he recognized the amount of money. It was the usual 20.000 the Lux received from one of the investors.

Kurtis grabbed his mobile phone and dialled the number of the man who was apparently behind this.

"Smertin."

"Hello, it's Kurtis."

"Trent, how nice to hear from you again. Did you receive the usual twenty thousand?"

"Yes, but listen, what's this company got to do with it?"

"Oh, don't you worry about that. It's a small business from a friend of mine. It's most profitable for both of us if we do it this way. You know, taxes and stuff."

Kurtis frowned. "Are you sure it's legal? And what does this friend know about us? We are a secret organisation remember?"

He heard how Smertin said something inaudible. "Yes, yes, it's fully legal", he then said in the phone. "And this friend doesn't know anything. We are secret, but also small and independent. That's a big advantage you know, the changes of leaving traces are minimal."

"Okay, I just wanted to check. Thanks for the information", said Kurtis.

"No problem, hear from you soon Trent. I heard from Boris Shoukov you're about to go to Argentina?"

"That's right", said Kurtis. "We have to sort some things out concerning a Mrs. Boaz, former Cabal member."

"I see… Well, good luck over there. Speak to you soon."

Smertin switched his phone off.

"What was that?" said the other man.

"Trent. He is getting suspicious."

The man frowned. "We have to be careful. They're going to Argentina right?"

"Yes."

"What are they doing there?"

"They found out something about Kristina Boaz."

"Let's keep an eye on him."

A few days later a black Mercedes drove up the parking spot of the airport in Düsseldorf. It was five in the morning and it was still dusky outside. In the light of one of the streetlamps stood a man in a black trenchcoat and a hat. The black Mercedes stopped in front of him and another man got out of the car. A drizzly rain was pouring down on the streets and together with the sad colours of the concrete buildings it gave the whole place a cold atmosphere.

Kurtis slammed the door shut and locked the car. In the distance he could hear the traffic on the motorway and there were some activities around at the airport but apart from that it was a quiet and lonely place. It was like a painting made with only different types of grey paint, apart from a dead tree next to a powerhouse and some grassy strokes next to the crash barriers. He felt a terrible headache coming up and muttered something to himself; he was in a grumpy, sad and almost melancholic mood.

Boris gave him a short nod and offered him a cigarette. Kurtis shook his head.

"Bex will be here any minute."

Kurtis checked his watch. "You got everything arranged?"

"Sure, I got money, fake passports, tickets and some other useful things."

"And our man over there?"

"Pablo? Great man and devoted Lux Veritatis warrior, you can rely on him."

Suddenly a second car appeared and a minute later Bex joined with the two men. She was wearing a blue parka and a scarf.

"Right", said Boris. "Here I got everything you need." He handed Kurtis a white envelope. "Two tickets, 800 euro in Argentinean currency, passports and a key to a locker on the airport in Buenos Aires."

Bex rubbed her hands together against the cold. "And what we will find in there?"

"Some hardware, you never you what crosses your path."

He tapped on an imaginary watch on his wrist. "You better go now, your plane while leave in 45 minutes."


	8. Arrivals

**VIII **

**Arrivals**

Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina and situated in the east of the South American country at the mouth of the Rio Riachuelo. The city has three million inhabitants and is famous for the harbour, the meat industry and its numerous universities and libraries.

For Lara it was quite a change after her stay in the deserted area of Patagonia. After she had left the hidden city in the hills she managed to return to little town where she had met Ivan from the café. She had bought a second hand car for a song and had started her long journey to the east.

After two days on the road she now reached Buenos Aires and the old rusty Chevy was almost worn out. When she parked it somewhere in the centre of the enormous city the engine grunted like a wounded animal.

Lara decided to leave the car behind and look for a taxi to drive her to the address she had found in the notebook. It didn't take long to find a taxi; they were similar to the classic ones in London only they had a yellow roof.

She showed the taxi driver the address and sat down at the backseats.

"You are a tourist aren't you?" asked the man while he was manoeuvring the car through the busy traffic.

"I'm not from this country", said Lara with a sonorous voice,

"I was just wondering" he continued. "You look like a backpacker to me. So it surprises me you want to visit the neighbourhood you directed me to."

Lara frowned, half annoyed by the nosey man and half interested what he meant with the last comment.

"Why?" she asked.

The driver hauled his shoulders. "It's a rich neighbourhood, only big villa's there. You don't seem the person to me to be familiar with the kind of people living there."

Lara leaned back and gave the man a lethal stare in the back mirror before putting her sunglasses on.

"You have no idea."

Kurtis tapped Bex on her shoulder. The young woman had been sleeping the last few hours of their flight and didn't wake up when the pilot announced that they would land in a while.

She opened her eyes and looked bored as soon as she realised where she was.

"Are we there yet?"

Kurtis put Boaz' diary back in his bag and nodded. "Yes, the pilot just announced we are about to land in a while."

Bex stretched her arms. "Have you found anything interesting in that book?"

"I think so. After Ulrike Boaz escaped from Germany in 1945 she settled down in Buenos Aires in a big villa. She met a man, they married and got a daughter, the daughter was called…"

Bex smiled insipidly. "Kristina."

Kurtis ignored her attitude and nodded happily. "Yes, it seems we are really getting somewhere. Because a few notes further she mentioned she had set up an expedition in the hills of Patagonia and found a secret temple."

The plane was approaching Ezeiza airport and everybody had to sit down and fasten seatbelts.

"And what did she find in that temple?"

Kurtis stared outside the airplane window admiring the view of the Atlantic Ocean and the enormous city stretching out alongside the coastline hundreds of kilometres.

"A poison", he said. "I know the changes are remote, but…"

Bex took a packet of Marlboro's from her hip pocket and putted one cigarette behind her ear. "Despite I think you're a bastard, sleeping with me while you already have a girlfriend, I hope you're right and we find an antiserum for you in her house. Plus I think it's our duty as the Lux Veritatis to find and destroy the actual poison before it falls in hands of the wrong people."

Kurtis had to wait a minute before reacting to her comments as his speech was drowned out in the noise of the landing.

A few minutes later when they were waiting to pick up their luggage he tried to explain for hundredth time he did not have a girlfriend.

"Maybe not now, but that time in Prague you certainly had", Bex hissed. "I've had enough men in my life to know what a photo in a wallet means."

They made their way to the lockers and Kurtis looked up the right number matching with the key Boris gave them. "So you had a lot of men in your life", he said trying to sound interested.

Bex nodded. "I'm a free spirit."

The heavy door opened and Kurtis carefully retrieved a cardboard box and dropped it in his bag. "A free spirit?" he said amused while zipping the bag shut. "I thought we call that a…"

Bex began to walk to the exit. "Don't complete that sentence."


	9. House of the Death

**IIX **

**House of the Death**

The taxi took a sharp turn and drove into a shaded lane. From the car Lara could only see the gates and hedges blocking her view into the front gardens of the houses.

The car slowed down. "What number was it again?" asked the driver.

Lara took the little notebook and checked. "254."

The man looked at her in the back mirror. "Are you sure? Are you one of those?"

Lara frowned and slowly shook her head. "What's that suppose to mean?"

The man grinned and drummed at the dashboard with two fingers "Oh, come on. Don't try to hide it; you're one of those freaks looking for spirits and shadows. Ever since the owner of that house at 254 disappeared, I think it was two years ago, you hear this stories of ghosts. They say the woman was a mad scientist. Police cleared out the whole house but couldn't find anything. It's empty now and available for sale but nobody wants to move in because of these stories. "

Lara remained silent for a few seconds. "No, never heard of that. I think I got the wrong number, it's 252."

The man nodded. "That sounds more likely to me. Are you visiting a friend?"

"…Yes."

"You won't find any at 254, I can assure you."

After two minutes the car stopped in front of a big iron gate guarding a big villa. The digits 252 were printed on a small sign next to the letterbox. Lara got out, paid the driver and waited for the car to disappear. Then she walked to the next house and found herself in front of another impressing looking gate. Through the grating she recognised a driveway leading to a house.

One of the big trees flanking the lane offered an easy way to get to the other side. She jumped up and grabbed a branch reaching over the fence. She carefully traversed to the right and tucked her legs up to avoid the nasty spikes at top of the fence. When Lara reached far enough she let go and landed softly on the sandy pathway. She followed the gravel driveway up to the house and walked round it to look for a way in. It was remarkably quiet here, some bright sunlight peaked through the shady woods and she could only hear some pigeons and traffic in the distance.

The windows and doors of the house were sealed with planks and it seemed she would need some force to get them removed. Maybe there was an easier way to get in.

Lara walked to the back of the house and looked out over a huge backyard. The grass at the lawn hadn't been mowed for ages and reached almost knee high. Her footsteps echoed loud at some grey tiles when she checked the backdoor, but it was locked. She looked up and saw some old police tape was strapped around the cast iron balcony. Lara took a few steps back to get a better view of the balcony and spotted that the door leading to the rooms upstairs wasn't sealed.

The balcony was too high to reach from here and she began to look for something to use as a ladder. Next to the garage she found an empty iron barrel, Lara shove it next to the balcony and climbed up. Now she was standing high enough to grab the gutter, traverse around the corner and pulled up at the balcony. An instinctive feeling made her grab a gun before she carefully opened the door leading inside. With a squeaky sound the wooden door swung open and she entered a dark and empty room. The opened door provided just enough light to find her way. The wooden floor creaked under her feet as Lara walked around to examine the room. But apart from a wooden cupboard and an old black and white photo in a broken frame there wasn't anything that could help her. She took a quick look in the cupboard but it was empty.

While she opened the door to the next room she kept thinking about the name of the person who lived here, Boaz. She was sure she had heard that name before but it was a long time ago and she couldn't remember when or where it was.

Lara found herself at the top floor landing. Four other doors prevented her from seeing what was in the other rooms, some steep wooden stairs, covered with a red carpet lead her downstairs. She holstered her gun and took a flashlight from her backpack to get a better view around. She was standing at big Persian rug, the walls were covered with a thick seam of dust and cobwebs. Frames on the wall showed photos in sepia of serious looking people.

Lara decided to take a look in every room. The first one was exactly the same as the one she came from but the second door gave her entrance to the bathroom. A stale, musty smell filled her nose as she took a quick look around. A mouse dribbled on a shelf in front of a broken mirror, the bath was half full of brownish water. She walked back to the landing when she suddenly spotted something shiny on the floor; she bent over and picked up a nailfile.

When the third room also turned out to be completely empty she made her way downstairs and wandered around in the spacey living room, kitchen and dining room.

Apart from some old tables and chairs covered in sheets the rooms were empty. She heard mice running around and in one of the kitchen cabinets she found a dead barn owl.

Just when she began to think there was absolutely nothing to find she discovered a small desk in the corner of the room. It seemed made out of heavy pinewood and contained three drawers. Lara tried to open them but without success. An idea popped up in her mind and she walked back upstairs to get the nailfile she had found earlier.

It worked, with a metallic click she could lift the little lever and opened the first drawer. She took out some old yellowish papers with mouldy stains. Beneath the papers she found a small key with a label saying 'lab'.

She put it in her pocket and opened the next drawer, empty. The third one contained more old mouldered papers with notes in neat handwriting. The text didn't seem very important; she wanted to put it back when a little photo dropped out of the pile. She brushed off the dust and held it in front of her flashlight. Lara's breath caught when she recognised the man at the picture, Pieter van Eckhardt.

Her memories went back, two years ago, Prague. She remembered his cackling voice. "Gunderson, release Boaz…"

**-**

Kurtis opened one of the many pockets in his combat trousers and retrieved his sunglasses. He put them on his nose and reached in another pocket to get a cigarette. He looked out over the busy street next to Ezeiza airport waiting for a red hummer to stop. Boris had told them their contact Pablo would pick them up in a red hummer as soon as they landed. But he had not arrived yet.

Kurtis lit his cigarette and stared at Bex who was standing a metre away from him. She couldn't see where he was looking and her blue eyes unknowingly met his. "Eyes full of bitterness", thought Kurtis silently to himself.

After five more minutes they finally spotted a hummer driving their way. The car was covered with a seam of dirt but it couldn't hide it had been red a long time ago.

Kurtis raised his hand and the vehicle stopped in front of them. A man, somewhat in his late twenties, got out and shook their hands with a broad smile. He had a tanned skin, short black hair and long stylish sideburns. He was wearing a red bandana and some sunglasses dangled casually at the collar of his white t-shirt.

"Nice to meet you two, my name is Pablo Sanchez and I'm the only member of the Lux Veritatis from Argentina." Kurtis nodded politely.

"My granddad lived in Mexico", continued Pablo with a heavy Spanish accent. "And he came in contact with some Irish immigrants from The States. Well, it's a complicated story, but I'm so glad to see the organisation flourish again. I hope we can set up a third cell here or maybe in Rosario, that's the city where I was born."

While telling all this he had helped Kurtis to put his bag in the back of the car and now they all had taken a seat and were ready drive off. The man kept on talking, rarely allowing Kurtis and Bex to squeeze in an answer or comment.

When he finally remained silent Kurtis grabbed the opportunity to ask what was on the programme. Pablo enthusiastically patted Kurtis knee. "I have it all figured out boss, don't worry. I found a nice hotel for us, in the city centre. And inside the dashboard cabin I got a detailed map of the area with the quickest route to the house we are looking for."

Bex, who was sitting at the backseat opened Kurtis' bag and took out the cardboard box. "Kurtis, you didn't check yet what's inside."

The American took the box from her and carefully opened it. "I didn't want to look in it when we were standing inside the airport." He announced with a grin. "Our contact Boris arranged it for us. I don't even want to know how."

The box contained two MP7A1 machine pistols. Pablo whistled between his teeth. "Nice contacts we have in Europe. But what do we need it for? Is he afraid Boaz will show up?"

Kurtis handed the guns to Bex and she put it back in the bag. "I know what you mean, our man Boris likes to show of a bit. It's always good to have some defence in case we get in trouble with authorities or possible splinter parties of the Cabal. But I have to admit it's not really necessary to walk around with this kind of gun."

The three people remained silent for a while when suddenly Kurtis' phone rang.

"Trent."

"Hello, Trent. It's me Igor Smertin."

"What can I do for you?"

"I have bad news. The thing you called me about, the little company in Russia that transferred my donation onto your bank account, they…"

"Well?"

"It seems you were right, it's not fully legal. In fact, they have sort of connections with the underworld."

Kurtis frowned and bit his lip. "That doesn't very good", he muttered angrily.

"I know, I know", said Igor. He sounded nervous. "What do you think Trent? Shall we continue with this or not? It's up to you."

"Of course not, say we don't want to get involved with this."

"Yeah okay, that seems the best thing to do. I'll do my best."

"Make it so!" snarled Kurtis, before switching off the phone.

Pablo steered up the parking lot of a hotel. Kurtis put his phone back in his pocket and felt a terrible headache coming up. He rubbed between his eyes with two fingers. The last thing he heard was Bex asking if he was okay, the next moment the whole world turned black.

He woke up on a bed in a hotel room, Pablo and Bex were standing next to him. "Oh, you are with us again", said Pablo with a smile. "It seems the poison is getting worse, maybe in combination with the hot weather and your jetlag. Why don't you stay here and rest for a while?"

Kurtis nodded. "Yeah, I think that's better. You two go the house and if there is something really important you can call me."

Suddenly all the memories of the incidents in Prague came back to Lara's mind. The Cabal and their secret projects, Eckhardt, Karel and Boaz. She remembered seeing Boaz, just before she had left Kurtis behind to fight her. The papers showed some letters she had sent to Eckhardt. Most of them had a very flattering nature; she seemed to admire Eckhardt like he was some kind of guru.

Lara stood up from the desk and walked around the room one more time to look were the key could fit she had found in one of the drawers. But she couldn't find any locked doors, the whole room was empty besides some old tables and chairs and an old dusty rug.

Lara walked back to the stairs to see if she missed something upstairs. But she tripped over the rug and had to hold onto a table to keep her balance. One side of the rug curled up and revealed an iron bolt.

Lara crouched down to examine it closely when she suddenly heard the sound of a door cracking open. She grabbed her gun and walked to the hallway. The front door was opened and she looked into the grey blue eyes of a young woman, her messy red hair was shining in the bright sunlight.

"Drop your weapon said Lara calmly."

But before the woman could answer there was a loud noise from the room and a moment later a man in a white t-shirt entered the hallway carrying a gun. Lara realised she was chanceless, and now it was her who had to drop her weapon.

A minute later she was sitting at a wooden chair with her hands and ankles cuffed. The man and woman were standing to the left and right of her.

"Who are you?" asked the guy.

"Not of your business", hissed Lara.

The woman fired the next question "Do you work for the Cabal?"

"No…" said Lara and she frowned. "Don't you?"

"What do you know about them?"

"I got involved with them two years ago in Prague."

Pablo looked at Bex. "It seems she speaks the truth", he said. But Bex didn't look very convinced. "What took place there?"

"I crossed paths with Pieter van Eckhardt… and… I killed him."

Pablo pointed his gun between her eyes. "That's a lie. Kurtis Trent killed Eckhardt and destroyed the sleeper. He told us that, hundredths of times."

Lara's eyes turned bigger. "Do you know Kurtis Trent? He knows me; he will tell you I am not Cabal. I'm at your side."

Pablo shook his head. "Nonsense, you're one of those and you'll need to be cleaned up."

Bex suddenly grabbed his arm. "Wait a minute… I know her face… Kurtis has a picture of her in his wallet. And he told me that he met a woman in Prague, maybe she is right."

"I doubt it", said Pablo. "We should kill her."

Lara knew she had to convince the guy to save her life. "Are you Lux Veritatis?" she asked.

"Here", said Bex. "She even knows us. Let's go back and take Kurtis here and he will tell us if she tells the truth or not. You get him, I guard the front door."

Pablo holstered his gun. "Okay."

They tore one of the sheets and strapped it around Lara's mouth. After that they left the house.


	10. Lara and Kurtis

**IX**

**Lara and Kurtis**

Lara heard how both people left the house. "I stay here and guard the door", said the woman. The man said something she couldn't hear and a second later she heard a car driving off. Apparently they were serious about getting Kurtis.

The time she had to wait gave her the opportunity to order her mind according to the events of the last ten minutes. The house she was sitting in belonged to Kristina Boaz, the female Cabal member she and Kurtis had met in Prague. The notebook Lara got from the woman in the pueblo probably belonged to her mother.

The two people who caught her inside the house and did tie her to the chair were members of the Lux Veritatis, the religious cult Kurtis was part of. Lara had still no clue how they ended up here. And it seemed Kurtis had told his colleagues that he was responsible for destroying Eckhardt and the sleeper. That, she now realised, had almost cost her life. Because they didn't believe her when she told she had met Kurtis in Prague. And now she was sitting here, tied to a chair in an empty house somewhere in Argentina. It was not as dark anymore inside the living room as some of the planks sealing the windows were removed. She had waited for about twenty minutes when she heard the grinding noise of a car driving up the gravel in front of the house. She heard voices outside and a moment later footsteps in the hallway, the door swung open and she looked into the azure eyes of Kurtis Trent.

"Lara Croft", he said slowly as if he tasted every syllable like expensive wine. His lips curled up in a smile and he wiped a strand of brown hair behind his ear.

"What is it that we always have to meet under such unusual circumstances?" he came closer and took a little knife from his pocket. Lara couldn't answer since the piece of white sheet was still strapped around her mouth.

"Let me help you to get out of this uncomfortable chair", Kurtis continued amused and cut the ropes that were keeping her ankles together. Lara stretched her legs with a painful face and looked angrily at Kurtis who had turned his attention to her gag and only last took care of the sheets around her hands. That moment Lara flew up from the chair and gave him a firm smack on his jaw. He stumbled and fell backwards to the ground; he slowly tried to get on his feet again while rubbing his jaw but Lara grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him up. "Are you out of your mind!" she yelled at him. "Your funny stories of Kurtis the superhero nearly got me killed!"

Kurtis was a bit overwhelmed by the situation and didn't reply immediately. Lara stared at him with furious eyes, her face only inches away from his. She was still holding his collar.

"Hey easy…" the American finally sighed. "I'm sorry about that… I…" he coughed. "I recently started to get people together to form a new Lux Veritatis. I had to tell them about the incidents in Prague but didn't want to include you. People would probably contact you or come round your house. Plus we still are not sure the Cabal is completely wiped out, they could've tracked you down. I wanted to safe you from all that."

The anger in Lara's eyes eased off somewhat and she released him from her grab. "Well, I guess I need to say thanks for that", she muttered and nervously brushed the creases from his shirt.

Kurtis gave her a short nod. "Gotta say my version of the story wasn't worth much, but it was the only thing I could think of." He walked to the small desk where Lara had found the photo of Eckhardt and picked up two pistols. "These are yours?"

Lara quickly took them from him and put them back in the holsters. "Yes, thanks." She said without looking at him

He saluted. "Good to see you again, how're you doing? What brings you here?"

She smiled and looked up, realising they were sort of friends again for the time being. "I'm okay. And I got here because of… Boaz."

Kurtis raised his eyebrows. "Interesting, me too, what exactly lead you to this house?"

"I was exploring the hills of Patagonia a few days ago, looking for three ancient cups of pure gold. They turned out to be stolen from a hidden temple where I found an old notebook with this address inside." She remained silent for a second. "And you?"

Kurtis grinned shyly and bit his cheek. "I… err… you remember that green slime Boaz sprayed on me?"

"Yes."

"It so happens to be very toxic and I'm in search of an antiserum."

Lara's mouth dropped open. "Toxic? Did you perhaps found out the name of the poison?"

Kurtis frowned. "I think it was DL46 or something, no LD-48, why?"

"LD, Liquid Devil. That's the name of the poison that was originally kept in those golden cups!"

They looked at each other with a mixture of surprise and horror. That moment the door creaked open and Pablo poked his head in. "I hope I do not interrupt? Me and Bex were wondering what's going on." he said with a smile. "If it's not too private", he added.

Lara was sitting at the low steps to the front door, Kurtis stood next to her leaning to the wall. He had just introduced Lara to his colleagues and now he was explaining how they both ended up here. Pablo sat at the bonnet of the car, looking at his dangling legs while listening to Kurtis. Bex stood a few metres away with her arms folded and looked bored.

"So, you never saw each other again after those incidents in Prague and its pure coincidence you crossed paths again?" said Pablo and he laughed loud. "Isn't that great?"

Lara looked surprised at Pablo's reaction and Kurtis gave her a short wink saying "don't pay attention, he's always like that."

The Argentinean jumped up from the car and rubbed his hands. "But now I guess we must take a look inside the house again, don't we all agree?"

Bex frowned. "Wait a minute", she said. "Maybe Ms. Croft is a friend of Kurtis but she is not a member of our order. How can we let her take part in our mission?"

Kurtis shook his head. "I just told you she helped me two years ago in Prague. I know I can trust her and she will help us. Won't you Lara?"

Lara stood up from the steps and stared disdainful at Bex for a moment. "I came here to find the golden cups", she said. "And that's still my main target. But now I heard about this poison I sure will try to help you out." She playfully pushed Kurtis' chin up with two fingers. "You're a sort of friend after all."

Bex watched them and produced a cynical grin. "Sort of friend? Kurtis also kept denying you were, or still are, his girlfriend."

"Don't you listen? He just told you we haven't seen each other for two years", snarled Lara at Bex and she turned around. "Now let's examine that bloody house." Bex silenced and turned her face away while muttering something to herself.

Kurtis and Pablo followed Lara inside the house. "Let's not get angry, shall we?" said Pablo cheerfully while putting his arms at Lara and Kurt's shoulders. "I know Bex is a pain in the neck" he added under his breath. "But discord in our team is the last thing we need now."

They walked into the living room together and Lara showed them the bolt she found under the carpet just before Pablo and Bex had caught her. Together they removed the whole rug and discovered another rusty bolt and two hinges to the opposite. They carefully undid the bolts and with a squeaky sound they opened a big wooden trapdoor. A blow of dust spread through the room and it took a few moments before they could check what was beneath the trapdoor.

Kurtis coughed loud and wiped some dust from his face. "Stairs…" he said whilst pointing down. The others joined him and saw some wooden stairs leading down to a hidden cellar. "What did she keep here?" asked Bex. "I have a feeling it won't be a wine cellar", said Pablo jolly.

Lara walked down the stairs with the others on her tail. Pablo took a flashlight and examined the door downstairs. It said 'lab' and was locked. Lara dug in her pockets and took out the little key she had found in the wooden desk.

"Nice job Croft", said Kurtis.

They key fitted in the keyhole and a second later she swung the door open. The same moment they all took a step back as a horrific stench hit their noses. Kurtis cursed loudly and covered his face with one hand. Lara did the same and squeezed her eyelids when she carefully took a few steps inside. A terrible rotten smell of death came from the room.

"What the hell is in there?" asked Pablo. "A slaughter house, a morgue or both?"

Lara managed to find a switch at the wall next to the door and a second later some bright strip lighting illuminated the hidden cellar. Four pair of eyes scanned the room and saw a small laboratory. The white tiles at the floor were covered with dirty stains and small pools of brownish water. In the middle of the room they saw a dentist chair with a shapeless carcass on it. Alongside two walls they saw some working benches, desks and filing-cabinets. The tables were covered with piles of papers and sheets, test-tubes, microscopes, surgery instruments and a computer. At the other wall stood three empty beds, the mattresses looked creasy and dirty. The walls were decorated with posters of scientific drawings of the human body and mysterious other mammals. The flickering strip lighting gave the whole place an extra sinister atmosphere.

"Oh my god, oh my god", whispered Bex. "This is horrible. I need a fag, call me when you need me", and she ran up the stairs.

"What's this boss?" asked Pablo.

Kurtis bit his lip and nodded slowly. "I've seen this place before. Well, not exactly this place of course. But the room reminds me of the sanatorium in Prague."

Still with their hands covering their noses the three people began to examine the laboratory. The corpse on the dentist chair was in a late stadium of decomposing and it was hard to tell if it was once human or perhaps another kind of creature. In this condition it certainly was an awful picture and provided a horrific display of Boaz' activities.

"Lara, the little booklet you found in that hidden temple. You said it belonged to her mother?"

Lara nodded. "Yes, it was owned by an Ulrike Boaz and considering the date it could well be her mother."

"I'm almost sure she is", said Kurtis. "Bex and I found an e-mail Muller sent to Kristina in which he mentions the emotional value of the poison for her." He switched on the computer on the desk but it didn't work. "She had a sick mind", he added. "Having emotional feelings for a lethal poison."

Pablo went through a pile of documents he found on top of the filling-cabinet. "And you said there actually was an antiserum in the temple?"

It was Lara's turn to nod again. "Yes, but it does only work short after the victim gets infected."

"That's why we are here", muttered Kurtis. "Even sick people like Boaz and her mother should have developed a better antiserum before putting the actual poison into practise."

Pablo suddenly waved a little notebook in front of Kurtis' eyes. "I found something. Looks like a diary again, from the hand of Boaz junior this time."

Kurtis yanked the notebook from Pablo's hands and scanned the first few entries.

_This is the first entry in my new diary and the first one after mother's funeral. From today I shall fully take over her work and serve the honourable Pieter van Eckhardt._

_I already spoke to him in Prague and he is certainly a genius. I'm proud to be part of the Great Work. One of my colleagues is a biology scientist who lives in Rome. I told him about the LD-48 and he was very enthusiastic. If mother was still alive she would be proud to hear her discovery would be used for such an important issue. _

"This confirms our theory", said Kurtis happy "Let's see if she has anything else about this."

_Next week I will get the keys to my apartment in Prague. Now the moment of truth is getting closer it's important to be there more often. At the moment I'm working at a unique experiment. If it succeeds we will have a 'proto-Nephilim'. I'm sure Master Eckhardt will be proud as soon as he finds out what I did._

_On my flight I will also take the antiserum of LV-48 with me. It's safer if Dr. Muller has it in his office on a safe place. It is a better version of the original serum; mother developed it after she got the poison from Patagonia._

"There we got it boss", announced Pablo cheerfully. "She did actually have an antiserum. And it's in Muller's office."

Kurtis grinned cynically. "Muller is dead and his office was inside the Strahov, which is demolished."

"What is this?" asked Lara, pointing at a small floppy piece of paper sticking out the diary. Kurtis took it out and gave it to her. "An article from a newspaper", he said dryly and hauled his shoulders. "It's in Spanish."

Lara began to read and with Pablo's help she could read to Kurtis.

_PLANE CRASHES NEAR SECRET MILITARY BASE_

_A Boeing-737 from Lufthansa on its way from Buenos Aires to Düsseldorf crashed on a small tropical island in the Atlantic Ocean. Not far from Cuba._

_The only inhabitants of the island turned out to be American soldiers manning a military base on that very island. They could provide quick emergency service._

_Since the presence of the base is top secret there's still a diplomatic war going on between various embassies across the globe._

_The American military authority has claimed some of the luggage that was on board of the airplane saying it contained 'suspicious' material. Some of the luggage was kept at the island's base and never returned to its owner. _

_An Argentinean woman had been held for questioning but got released after two days. _

Kurtis frowned "what's that suppose to mean?"

"Maybe it was actually…" began Lara but she didn't complete her sentence. "Give me that book again, will you."

Pablo handed her the little notebook. "Do you think she was carrying..?"

"Yes, I think she was", said Lara while looking for the right page. "Yes, you see? The date of that entry matches with the article in the newspaper. The day she said she would take the antiserum to Prague was the day that plane crashed."

Kurtis slapped his forehead. "Of course, a plane crash. That's why her face looked so strange; it was burned after that plane crash."

Lara put both the notebook and the article at the working table. "Seems like you have an island to explore my friend, got any relatives on Cuba?"

"I do know someone there actually", said Kurtis with a grin. "An old friend of my father lives in Havana." He paused. "But what will you do Lara? It seems there isn't any trace to the golden cups."

Lara hauled her shoulders. "I have a better look in her diary tonight. Maybe she mentions it somewhere. Then I have to think what I will do."


	11. Turning Point

**XI **

**Turning Point**

"Shall we go back?" asked Pablo. "I don't think there isn't much else to do here." He shivered.

Kurtis nodded. "Yeah, let's get out of here and see what Bex is up to."

They climbed the stairs and shut the trapdoor. After that they pulled the rug back over it as if nobody ever had discovered the secret basement.

Lara blinked against the bright sunlight when she walked down the three steps at the front door. Bex was leaning against the hummer smoking a cigarette and talking to someone on her mobile phone. When she saw the three others she quickly switched the phone off and put it her pocket.

"What's it?" asked Pablo with a frown. "Have you got a secret lover waiting for you?"

Bex nervously tipped some ash from her cigarette. "Nothing, nothing that would interest you. Did you find anything in there?"

Kurtis showed her the diary and the article. "Boaz' mother had developed an improved version of the antiserum; it will probably be able to help me."

Bex sent a puff of smoke in the air and pulled her eyebrow. "Good for you, and where are we supposed to find it?"

"That's the problem", said Kurtis with a bitter face. "She wanted to take it with her to Prague but her airplane crashed on a small island not far from Cuba. On that island is a secret base of the United States army. They claimed her luggage because they found suspicious material in it, presumably it's still there."

Pablo had got into the car and started the engine. "I suggest we go back to the hotel and make a plan to see how we get on that island. Ms. Croft? I had booked three rooms, I can take one room with Mr. Trent and you can have the other one if everyone is okay with that."

Lara opened the car door and took place at one of the backseats. "Very nice of you to think about me", she said amused. "Guess it would hurt your conscience if I had to find a place at the Salvation Army."

Pablo produced a loud guffaw as he drove off from the house. He turned on the radio and sang along with an Argentinean ballad.

That evening Kurtis sat at his hotel bed flicking through the television channels. Pablo was in the bathroom taking a shower.

He had taken off his shirt and socks and his dog-tag rattled at his chest when he reached out to get a packet of cigarettes from the low table next to the bed. That moment he heard a polite knock on the door.

"Enter."

Bex entered the room and smiled shyly at him. Kurtis playfully saluted with two fingers and balanced the packet of Marlboro's on one of his bare feet.

"What can I help you with?"

Bex smiled again and looked to the bathroom door before she sat down at one of the chairs.

"I wanted to ask if you want to spend the night at my room."

Kurtis frowned. "Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry for what I did", she continued. "I think we should be friends again. We actually make a good couple…" she paused and gave him a wink. "You did quite well that night in Prague."

Kurtis looked astonished at her for a second without saying anything. Then he lit his cigarette and laughed while shaking his head. "Are you honestly thinking that I would be still interested in you after all what happened? Get out of here, we're colleagues and that's it."

Bex angrily stood up and left the room, she slammed the door behind her. "Yeah, and a goodnight to you too", said Kurtis.

A minute later the bathroom door swung open and Pablo appeared, dressed in a bathrobe. "What happened?"

Kurtis repeated the conversation.

The young man closed his eyes with his hand for a second and sighed. Then he began to put his clothes back on. "Like I said before, discord is the last thing we need. I have a talk with her", and with that he left the room.

The man was only two minutes gone when Kurtis heard a second knock at the door. It was Lara this time. "Croft." He said cheerfully and jumped up from the bed. "Excuse me for my appearance." He reached out for his shirt and put it back on.

"Don't interrupt your daily routine for me", she said dryly and sat down at the same chair Bex was sitting a minute ago.

"Have you found anything about the cups in that notebook?" asked Kurtis still not sure what she was trying to say with the comment about his daily routine.

"I have actually", announced Lara. "But it doesn't get me any further. Boaz sold those cups to a Russian man named Korneev."

Kurtis grinned. "Is that all? There are many Russians on the globe. And many of them are called Korneev."

"I know, so I guess my quest ends here."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Will you go back home tomorrow or join in with our mission?"

Lara hauled her shoulders. "What's there in it for me? What have you got to offer?"

"Not much", said Kurtis. "A trip to a small subtropical island to retrieve a small package from a heavily secured base, both the jungle and that base are full dangers. If we succeed I'm saved from an early death, if we fail we are eaten by crocodiles or jailed for infiltrating in a military base."

Lara smiled. "Sounds like fun."

"So you're in?" asked Kurtis surprised.

"Yes, I'm in. God knows why but for some reason I wouldn't want to see you die of that poison."

They both remained silent for a while. Finally Lara broke silence after several minutes.

"Kurtis?"

"Yes?"

"Why do you keep a picture of me in your wallet?"

The American laughed shyly and rubbed his chin. "I… I don't know. After Prague I… you found me there bleeding like a pig and took me to that hospital…"

"I did…" said Lara and hauled her shoulders. "I couldn't leave you like that."

"Well, but you didn't stay long. When the doctors stitched me up you sat five minutes next to my bed and was gone."

Lara frowned. "What else could I do? I hardly knew you."

"No, no, you're absolutely right. But what happened there in Prague made an impact on me. And I think that's why I keep that picture with me. Just some weird psychological thing I guess. It was an emotional period and I had nobody to talk to about that… and… oh forget it. It's nothing."

Lara stood up from her chair. "No problem, I was just wondering. I'm off to bed now, see you tomorrow."

Kurtis walked her out. "I have a look at Bex' room, see what Pablo's up to."

They walked to Lara's room and the woman got inside. Then Kurtis knocked at the door next to it.

"Hello? Pablo, I was wondering how things are going."

No reply.

He carefully opened the door and walked inside the room. Pablo was lying on his back on the bed. He had a small hole between his eyes. His shirt and the sheets were covered in blood.

The rest of the room was empty, no sign of Bex.


	12. Havana

**XII **

**Havana, A Few Days Later**

After the shocking event in the hotel in Buenos Aires Lara and Kurtis had packed their gear and travelled to Cuba. In the old town centre of Havana lived an old friend of Kurtis' father Konstantin.

The republic of Cuba is located in the Caribbean area. It's got eleven million inhabitants and consists of one main island and thousands of smaller islands.

The warm weather didn't bother both people much when they left the international airport of Jose Marti, since the climate was basically similar to Argentina.

Havana itself is a big city, housing two million people. The architecture varies from churches and castles from the sixteenth century to flatbloks and community lots built in the late fifties to hi-tec buildings that only recently erected.

From the airport Lara and Kurtis took a taxi, driving them alongside La Malecon, a broad boulevard giving a nice view over the canal.

When they got out of the taxi they had arrived in the old town centre of Havana. Enormous portraits of President Castro were painted on several walls. Usually flanked by his companion Che Guevara.

In the eye of the people in the street Lara and Kurtis perhaps seemed nothing more then two people on a holiday. A man dressed in combat trousers and a white sleeveless shirt and a woman in kaki shorts and a black top. Both examining their surroundings through dark sunglasses. They followed a narrow lane shaded by palm trees. At both sides of the road they saw flats made out of yellowish bricks. From some balconies laundry was draped over the balustrades and the air was filled by the sound of music, voices of playing children and passing cars.

"It must be this house", said Kurtis pointing at one of the front doors. "Number 174, on the second floor."

Lara followed him to the front door and pressed the right button. "What was his name again?" she asked.

"Julio Velazquez", announced Kurtis with a grin. "Sounds impressive, dontcha agree?"

"Is it a long time ago since he saw you for the last time?" Asked Lara.

Kurtis leaned against door and pushed his sunglasses to the tip of his nose. "He never saw me, I only know him from what my father told me."

Lara looked surprised and opened her mouth to ask something but at that moment the door creaked open and a chubby man with short grey hair looked at them for a moment. "Don't say anything", he announced and held up his hand. "Let me guess..."

Lara looked at his hand and saw he was wearing the same type of ring as Kurtis. The man stared long and hard at Kurtis and a bright smile appeared at his face.

"Konstantin... No, no, that is nonsense... Konstantin is dead... and if he was alive... he should be older then that...", he paused and examined both people from top to toe.

"It's Kurtis, his son", said Lara who was to impatient to wait a second longer. "Nice to meet you Julio."

The man raised his eyebrows and then happily hugged Kurtis. "Kurtis, of course. How great to see you boy, you look so much like your father. And who did you bring with you?"

Lara reached out to shake hands. "Name's Lara, I'm a friend of Kurt."

"Well, well, well, what a surprise, how nice of you to visit me. Oh, you must excuse me for letting you wait so long. I was cooking some dinner for tonight, but do come in. How impolite of me to hold you up at the door like this, come in, come in."

AngelTrent

They followed Julio inside the house to a small living room. Two leather sofas stood not far from the door to the balcony. Between them was a low table filled with empty glasses, books, an ashtray, some newspapers and a small wooden box. One of the sofas was flanked by a big green plant in a ceramic pot. The rest of the room was occupied by a wooden dining table and some chairs, a cupboard with many drawers and a small cage with a parrot. Two doors were set into the wall opposite the balcony.

Julio invited his guests to take place at the sofa. "I'm back in second", he said. "I get something to drink for you from the kitchen."

He disappeared behind one of the two doors giving them a glimpse of a small kitchen. He came back with three small glasses and placed them on the table. "Oh, it's a bit messy here, I hope you don't mind." He took some of the newspapers and piled them up at one corner of the table. Then he went to the cupboard and took out a bottle of rum.

"Well, now you must tell me what brings you here to this country Kurtis", he said while filling the glasses.

Kurtis smiled amused. "I can't remember we ordered rum, but thanks anyway. What brings us here is a small island not far from Cuba."

Julio sat down next to him, leaned back and nodded slowly.

"Kurtis is infected with toxic material two years ago", continued Lara. "It so happens the antiserum can be found at a military base on that island. The poison has been in his system for a long time, but he got only a small amount and it is a slow process. We don't know how much time we have left though before it's too late."

Kurtis rubbed his nose bone and coughed. "Lara got it right; I suffer from headaches and dizzy spells. But it slowly gets worse and if we don't find the antiserum..."

Julio took a big swig of rum. "I understand my boy, and I wish I could help you. But I don't know how. Well, I know the island you are talking about, officially its secret but even my neighbours grandchildren know its there. I can show you where it is on the map."

That moment Kurtis' mobile phone rang. He sighed and took the little thing from his pocket, the screen showed the number of Boris.

"Hey Boris."

"Trent, good to hear you are still alive."

"Why?"

"I just found out some serious problems. Is Bex still with you?"

"No, she is gone. And she presumably killed our contact."

"I see..."

"What's this all about man?" Kurtis started to get worried.

"I found out this guy Igor Smertin is a crook."

"You don't say? And what's got Bex to do with that?"

"Remember how Smertin transferred his donation via a small company of a friend?"

"Yes, he called me in Argentina to tell this friend had connections in the underworld but he offered to cancel the whole thing."

"That was a trap, a test to see how you would react. Because Smertin is part of the underworld too, I have his office bugged. That friend is actually his boss and they joined the Lux as so-called investors to use our bank accounts as safe harbour for their dirty money."

Kurtis cursed loudly and emptied his glass with a long gulp. "I knew it", he hissed. "I knew we should get rid of these people."

Boris remained silent for a second. "The point is", he said. "They think so too. In the past few weeks they found out what the LV exactly stands for, and for some reason they decided they didn't want to get involved with it any further."

Kurtis frowned. "So? What's the problem then?"

"They want all their money back. And they think you know too much and want to clean you up. They recruited someone from our ranks do to the job."

Kurtis grinned cynically. "Bex."

"Yes."

"Well", said Kurtis. "Thanks for letting me know, we should watch our toes the coming days. We are in Havana at the moment and will set up a trip to a small island to retrieve the antiserum."

"Good for you", commented Boris dryly. "Can I be of any service? I'm in The States at the moment and I got a fast yacht."

Kurtis laughed. "I don't think you get inside the harbour of Havana. They have coast patrols day and night for Cuban refugees."

"Don't worry about that. I got faked papers to get inside the parliament and sit behind Castro's desk if I want."

"Well, in that case you could get us to that island and help us with some equipment for sneaking into a heavily secured base."

"Will do. See you tomorrow evening in the harbour. I will call." and with that he switched off his phone.


	13. Planning New Moves

**XIIV **

**Planning New Moves**

The bright sun was twinkling in the small pools of water in the bumpy road. The sand had a rusty orange colour which blended in well with the green foliage of palm trees above the street and the yellowish plaster of the houses and other buildings. The streets were full of pedestrians carrying shopping bags and all kinds of cars manoeuvring their way to the chaotic traffic. Old rusty Cadillac's and Roll's passed by. Also German types, like the BWM were well represented. Some of the cars were occupied by more then 6 people. In a little café in the middle of this coastal village sat some customers at the heavy wooden tables. A few men had gathered around the biggest table in the middle of the bar-room talking, drinking and smoking big Cuban cigars. A door not far from the bar gave entrance to the ladies toilet. In the small room was Rebecca Morris standing above a small sink. She leaned forward and made a loud snorting sound. A second later she lifted her head up again and watched herself in the mirror. Her curly red hair was tangled and knotted, her light blue eyes felt itchy and had lost their usual glance. She squeezed her eyelids and quickly wiped something from her nose.

She returned to her chair in the bar-room and snapped her fingers to order a glass of sparkling water. Bex fetched a packet of cigarettes from her pocket and lit her twentieth Marlboro of that day. Just a few hours ago she had arrived at the small docks with a cargo ship from Buenos Aires. Five hundred dollars cash and some other services had proven to be enough for the ships crew to take her as a stowaway. And after a few days they had reached the island of Cuba. Now she was sitting here in a small bar somewhere in village not far from Havana. Before she had killed Pablo and fled from the hotel she had managed to find out where Kurtis' friend lived.

She inhaled the smoke of her cigarette and thought about her life. She was born in Sheffield in a poor working class family. Her mother died when she was fourteen and her father worked all the day in the steel factory. She was lucky to score fairly good results at school and her first boyfriend helped her to find a job. When she was in her early twenties she began to get interested in her forefathers. With the help of the internet she found out her greater grandfather had been part of a secret organisation called the Lux Veritatis. To find out more about this she moved to France where she heard of Kurtis Trent, an ex-legionnaire who was the last living active member of the LV. She got introduced to the idea of reviving the order and she enthusiastically agreed to join.

A few months later she began to regret that decision. The mysterious and surrealistic atmosphere made her paranoid and restless. Then she got contacted by a Russian man named Smertin. He explained her he was an investor of the LV. But he had found out some things about Trent and now he wanted to leave the order. He also wanted to have Trent removed and he was looking for someone to do that job for him. Kurtis was the highlight of the order and with his death the complete organisation would probably fall apart. So this seemed to be her best change to get out of the order make some money out of it as well.

Bex dropped her cigarette in the ashtray in front of her and took her mobile phone. She dialled the number of Igor Smertin.

"Bex?"

"Yeah hi."

"Did you make it to Cuba?"

"Yes, I'm in a small town just outside Havana now and I know where this contact lives."

"Okay perfect, don't screw it up this time."

"I won't."

"You could have finished the job back in Argentina."

"I know, but he was in the room with that other woman. I was scared… I would have been outnumbered and they would get me, and…"

The man sighed annoyed. "And what..?"

"Kurtis… it's difficult for me to do this… because…"

"Because you slept with him in Prague? C'mon this not the moment for being emotional, just do what yours is told. Alexei is getting impatient."

Bex nodded. "I understand, I will try to do it this night."

"Perfect. Call me again when he is dead."

Julio opened the small wooden box on the table and offered Kurtis a cigar. The American had just been telling about his conversation with Boris and happily took a Cuba's national pride.

"The island isn't far outside the coast", told Lara who was sitting with a map on her knees. We could go there with Boris' boat. The only thing is we don't know much about the security on that base. But maybe Boris can help is with that too.

Kurtis took a box of matches from Julio and began to light his cigar. But while he was busy doing this he suddenly felt a strange feeling climbing up his spine. He stopped and put the cigar at the table; he shivered and felt a light dizzy feeling in his head. His hands tingled and the whole world around him seemed to be played in slow motion.

"One of those dizzy spells again?" asked Lara.

He turned to her and slowly shook his head. "No… it's worse this time…"

"My god Kurtis, you look pale", the woman exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

But Kurtis didn't hear Lara. He closed his eyes and heard a strange rustling sound and a mysterious cacophony of whispering voices.

The delirium took him away from the living room. Kurtis walked a straight and lonely road between two mountain slopes. It was dark outside and the moon was casting a surrealistic blue light over the deserted landscape. There was a strong wind that made him shiver but it didn't distract him from walking straight ahead. In the mountains left and right of him he heard howling wolves. Suddenly he heard a horrific scream, it started slowly but got louder and louder like a siren. He turned around and looked into the eyes of Boaz. Her ugly deformed body and the evilness in her look made him retch. The same moment he felt a horrible pain in his chest. He grunted and the picture of Boaz, the mountains and the moon began to fade away. He heard silent voices and felt how someone laid a hand on his forehead. The next moment he saw two brown eyes looking at him.

"He sees us", said Julio.

"Yes, but he is still very weak", said Lara. "He can't make it to the harbour tonight. Maybe I should go, if it's not too late."

The man grabbed Kurtis' hand. "Are you okay boy? It seems the poison is getting in its final stage. We have to act quickly now to save you."

Kurtis was lying in Julio's bed, short after he had announced he felt dizzy he had fainted. Now he was conscious but still very weak and he could hardly move or speak.

"Lara?" he whispered.

Julio smiled. "Lara is here too, she will go to the island for you. We put you in bed because you fainted."

Lara squatted next to the bed and winked at him. "It seems things are getting serious Kurt. I hope I will be in time to save you. So don't even try to die before I return."

Kurtis smiled. "That'd be the second time you saved my life."

"Hasn't happen yet", said the woman and stood up. "And you better get some sleep. You have a dangerous high fever."

She followed Julio back to the living room. The man opened the doors to the balcony to let some air in. It was early evening and it was very sultry inside.

"My wife will be home soon", he said. "Maybe she can have a look at him too. He needs some medical attention until you are back with the antiserum."

Lara raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you were married?"

"O yes, my lovely Maria will arrive any minute from now. She works as a hairdresser and visits her customers at home."

They sat down at the sofa and Julio poured himself another glass of rum. Lara politely shook her head when he offered her a drop. They sat like that for several minutes without saying anything. Lara listened to the voices of people in the street, Julio's parrot muttering Spanish cuss words and the sonorous sound of traffic in the distance.

"Maria works as a hairdresser", said Julio suddenly. "And I'm a taxi driver in the evening. I also work as a tourist guide during the weekend." He took a last swig of rum and licked his lips. "Alcohol is prohibited here but everyone has ways to get it somehow", he grinned. "I used to work in the countryside in a tobacco estate. And before that in a butcher shop, but that was in Rosario, because I'm actually from Argentina. When Kurtis' father Konstantin got killed I decided to flee to Cuba. My uncle was part of the Lux Veritatis; he's the grandfather of the contact you met in Buenos Aires. I don't belong to the cult but I knew a lot because of my friendship with Konstantin. Luckily we had a friend in Cuba that helped us to start a new life here. He was a big name in the government but he got killed in Bolivia, poor bastard. "

Lara frowned. "You mean…?"

"Yeah", said Julio with a grin. "Life is not always easy here; I need to work my back off every day to get enough money. Things aren't fully working… but you won't hear me complaining. I got a house, a wife, I'm doing well."

His philosophical review of his life got suddenly interrupted when the door swung open and a plump woman entered the room. She was wearing a big yellow dress and a necklace of wooden beats. A shock of brown curly hair with some grey strands was draped majestically over her shoulders. She had a broad smile and nodded friendly to Lara.

"Who is that sweetheart?" she asked her husband.

Julio stood up and gave her a quick kiss. "It's Lara Croft, a friend of Kurtis Trent who is visiting us."

Five minutes later he had explained the whole story.

"My dear child", the woman said to Lara. "What a responsible task you're having. And Julio didn't even give you something to eat."

Before Lara could squeeze an answer Maria stood up and marched resolute to the kitchen. A minute later she came back with some fruit in a bowl, a cold ham and a glass of water.

"Now you eat this, my girl and I have a look at your gentleman friend."

Lara opened her mouth to say something but decided to surrender to the grateful hospitality of Maria and thankfully accepted the food.

"I worked three weeks for that ham", muttered Julio to his wife but she ignored him.

She went to the bedroom and checked Kurtis' pulse. The she patted his head with some water and checked his respiration. "He is doing fair", she said when she came back. "But he needs that antiserum quick. When are you going to that island?"

Lara nodded with her mouth full to Kurtis' phone on the table. "I'm calling his contact Boris in a minute to settle a time and place for tonight", she said after she swallowed.


	14. The Preparation

**XIV **

**The Preparation**

It was past midnight in the harbour of Havana. The tropical heat had eased off a little but it was still very damp and sultry outside. It wasn't very busy in the streets, some people gathered around bars and clubs, some cars drove past on their way into town. At the docks was some activity where container ships came to unload their cargo. The sound of driving trucks, turning cranes and the voices of the crew broke the silence of the night.

Further down the seaside road it all was a lot quieter. A lot of sailboats and yachts bobbed up and down in the marina that was located not far from the cargo docks.

But the driver inside a small green Lada didn't pay attention. She turned on the radio of the car she had hired and took a cigarette from her packet on the dashboard. With the back of her hand she wiped a strand of hair behind her ear before she put the cigarette between her teeth.

The radio played some Spanish song she had heard a hundred times since her arrival in Cuba. She didn't know the words but the tune already got stuck in her head. She jerked at the other end of the cigarette and dropped the filter in the ashtray.

The little flame of the lighter illuminated the car for two seconds, Bex inhaled deep and steered the car into a side road, away from the boulevard, deeper into town. She had to stop as a few pedestrians crossed the road. Some men in working suits, an older gentleman with a hat and a young woman with a long braid. She could only see their silhouettes in the bright light of her headlights.

Ten minutes later Bex had arrived in the town centre but completely lost her way. She had parked the car on the pavement in front of a tall building and had spread out a map on the seat next to her. She knew the address Kurtis' contact lived at but it wasn't an easy task finding it in this big city in the dark. She checked her watch and sighed. Maybe it was better to wait a couple of hours and wait for the daylight.

Lara walked down the street leading to the boulevard. In her hip pocket a small note with the location were she would meet Boris. The guy had not trusted her at once and she had to get Kurtis on the phone. The grunts and whispering voice of the American had been enough to convince Boris he wasn't able to come in person.

It wasn't very busy in the streets. Some cars drove into the town and a few pedestrians followed her way to the marina or the docks. Lara stood still and waited before a small line of cars had stopped before she crossed the road; the car in front was a rusty green Lada. She safely made it to the other side and a few minutes later she walked alongside the quay looking for the right yacht. It didn't take long before a small white boat with the name _Rosa 6_ caught her eye.

She walked up the plank leading on board. The door to the cabin swung open and a short skinny man looked at her. "Who are you?"

"Croft", she said curtly. "Are you Boris?"

The man didn't react. "Maybe…" he finally said. "Who did send you?"

"Kurtis Trent", said Lara annoyed. "And he told me you enjoy this kind of games. But I don't, so stop playing the secret agent."

Boris smiled and let her inside the cabin. "You got the same sense of humour as our friend Ms. Croft. Let's get inside and I'll tell you everything you need to know."

She followed him further inside the boat and they ended up at a small square room with a table in the middle. In the glaring light she recognised a couple of firearms, a few maps and documents, some clothing and a big green box.

"With this you should be able to make it to that island and infiltrate in that base", announced Boris while pointing at the table.

"I think without those I would make it as well", said Lara. "I'm more depending on the information you got."

Boris ignored her comment, took a chair and offered her another one. "Then pay attention to the following", he said while taking one of the maps. "This is the island; the military base is located at the eastern point. The security is extremely high; you have no change to get there undetected. Our chances are at the other side. Some cliffy bay gives entrance to the western shore. I can't get there with the yacht so you should take the last bit with an inflatable boat."

Lara pointed at the green box. "That thing?"

"Yes. Well, from there it's a long walk to the base, a few kilometres through the wilderness. The terrain is mangrove-like, quite rough and full of swamps. Closer to the base there are some more accessible pathways, makes it easier to walk. But watch out because from that moment you could also run into a patrol."

Boris shoved the maps away and pointed at the guns at the other side of the table. "That brings us to the next point, weapons and equipment. What have you got yourself?"

Lara took a Colt from under coat and placed it at the table. From a small holder around her leg she fetched an army knife.

"Good stuff, that'll come in useful", commented the Russian. "I got some hardware here. You can't take everything with you of course, so take a look and get what you think you'll need."

Lara recognised a classic Kalashnikov, a small handgun with non-lethal darts, a sniper rifle and a pair of Uzis.

"I leave my colt behind", she said. "And take one of the Uzis plus the dart gun. But I'm not sure which of the two big guns I take."

Boris cleared his throat. "Take the Kalashnikov, if you ever have to fire from a distance it will be at one of those patrols. You would not have the time to get a clear shot with that sniper rifle, unless you'll see your way up a hill and take some of the guards out from up high."

Lara shook her head and picked the machinegun up from the table. "No, I'm not shooting anyone if it's not absolutely necessary." She aimed down her sight with the weapon and carefully examined its construction. "Yeah, I stick with this one. Now something else, when I find my way inside that base and retrieve the antiserum, how do I get back?"

Boris walked up the stairs to the steering wheel and stared at the sea, Lara followed him. "We got two versions", he said. "If you stay undetected you go back the way you came. If you get people on your tail you have to improvise. I can't help you with that because they have a detector that picks up every radio transmission."

Boris started the engine of the yacht and left the marina. First they skirt the coast but then the yacht plied to the north and sailed away from the land. "It takes about an hour", told Boris. "And in some two and a half hours you'll leave with the rubber boat and it will be sunrise at the time you arrive at the island."

Lara took the stairs back inside the boat. "Call me when we are there. I have a lie down at one of those benches."

Boris muttered something but didn't keep his eyes of the sea in front of him. "They'll get heavy rain above land in a few minutes; I hope it doesn't come this way before dawn."

At began as a meaningless drizzly rain but in the last few minutes it had evolved into a shower of tropical measurements. The raindrops drummed down on the roof of the car and the many cracks and bumps in the road made it even more difficult to drive. The light of the streetlamps reflected in the pools of water and a strong wind made the palm trees waving wildly.

But Bex didn't care that much about it. She was driving the green Lada in a street in the old town centre. Finally she had found her way to the right house, even before dawn. She drove in a sideway and lowered her speed as she was almost there. In one of those flat blocks lived the man who was an old friend of Kurtis' father. Her task was simple, get inside that house and kill Kurtis. Then she could go back to Europe, get 25 thousand euro from Igor Smertin and live the rest of her life in peace. No more Lux Veritatis, no more clans and sects, no more Russian mafia.

She bowed her head, took something from her pocket snorted loudly. "Let's get on with it", she muffled and opened her bag; she carefully retrieved the gun that was in there. She checked if it was loaded and put it in the pocket of her coat. The she reached again in the bag and took out a long and razor-sharp bayonet. With a slight feeling of dizziness she got out of the car. Her eyes moved quickly, like a bird and her movement was wild and frighteningly uncontrolled.

Kurtis slowly opened his eyes and tried to sit in the bed. A second later Maria was standing next to him and pushed him back. "Be careful Mr. Trent, you are very weak."

He breathed heavily and wiped some sweat from his forehead. "Its okay thank you", he said and tried again to sit up. This time he succeeded and carefully rested his back against the wall. "Well", he said with a sigh, "it seems I'm feeling a little better."

Maria smiled and gave him a glass of water. "You are still very sick Mr., you will really need that antiserum and before that you will not leave this bed."

Kurtis nodded politely and took a swig from the water. "Where are you two sleeping? It's about 2 o clock in the morning."

Julio appeared at the door; he looked tired and tried to suppress a yawn. "We took the couch", he said. "And I think we better get back to sleep again."

He and Maria left the room and switched of the light again. Kurtis sighed once more and listened to the roaring rain outside. Then he rested his head on the pillow again and tried to go back to sleep.

He didn't know how long he had been sleeping when he opened his eyes again. It couldn't be that late because it was still dark outside and the rain had not eased off.

He began to wonder what woke him up when he suddenly heard a strange sound from the living room. The door was half open and from the bed he could see how someone entered through the front door. His breath caught, someone had forced open the front door and was sneaking inside. Kurtis' head was terribly aching and he felt dizzy at every movement he made, but he kept watching the dark silhouette. It walked to the two sofas where Maria and Julio were sleeping. Kurtis saw how the intruder took a long, pointy thing and thrust it in one of the people on the bench. He began to panic and his mind started to work in top speed, he had to do something before the murdered reached him. Ignoring the heavy dizziness he stood up from the bed. He had to grab the wall to keep his balance but made sure to stay away from the door. While trying not to make any sound he put on his jeans and took his gun but put it back immediately, he was too weak to use it. From the narrow cleft between the door's hinges he saw how the person took care of its next victim. Kurtis quickly looked around, what could he do to defend himself? Nothing, he was weak as a baby and not even able to move properly. It was hopeless, he was going to die.

Then he saw a last resort. Risky, but the only thing he could think of.


	15. The Intruder

**XV **

**The Intruder**

In two big leaps he was standing in front of the window. With a grunt he pushed it open and poked his head outside, it was some 5 metres to the ground.

He put one foot in the windowsill but at the same moment he saw the ground beneath him shaking up and down, his head felt like a tennis ball bouncing between two walls.

He tried to turn around and get both his legs out of the window but he realised he was loosing his balance. With a suppressed scream he dropped down, during his drop he grinded against the wall and felt his skin getting grazed. Two seconds later he fell with his back on a pile of rubbish bags. For a moment every bone in his body seemed to be broken. He tasted warm blood in his mouth and a smashing pain in his head. Kurtis tried to stand up in pouring rain; his bare feet felt cold on the pavement, he was only wearing his jeans.

In a matter of seconds he was soaked, the raindrops rattled down on him like a waterfall. His head was spinning round and the dizziness was so heavy it made his stomach twist.

Then he heard a voice from above: "Damn Trent, now I got you! And don't try to run away!"

He looked up and recognised Bex. She was standing at the window he had jumped from. Her hair was flapping in the wind and she held a gun in her hand.

He turned around and ran away but he could hardly keep his balance and zigzagged forwards to the street. The thick curtain of rain and the glaring lights of the streetlamps and the bypassing traffic began to mix into one blurry image in front of his eyes. A dull thud made him look back and he saw Bex standing up from the rubbish bags, she had jumped down.

Kurtis wanted to start running again but he lost all feeling of direction. He ran and suddenly noticed he was standing in the middle of the road. Cars stopped with screeching brakes and had to manoeuvre in all directions to avoid him. Then he heard a gunshot and the sound of a ricocheting bullet not far from him. He stood still and saw how Bex followed him on the road. A second later another car turned around the corner and drove right into Bex. It put in the brakes but it was too late, Bex got thrown up in the air and slammed down on the asphalt. Blood was running from her head and nose and mingled with the rainwater. Her neck was twisted in an unnatural angle and she didn't move.

Kurtis didn't have the energy to walk a single yard and slowly sank down on his knees. He heard shouting voices in Spanish of the car drivers and far, far away the siren of an ambulance. Dark spots appeared in front of his eyes as he slowly lost his consciousness.

Boris Shoukov carefully stopped the boat and checked the bearings to make sure he had reached the right position. He walked down to the cabin and saw Lara sleeping on one of the narrow benches alongside one of the walls. He gave her a gently push at her shoulder. "Ms. Croft, we are there, it's time to get ready."

Lara lifted her head up and yawned. She checked her watch; two and half hours had passed since Boris had left the harbour.

She stood up and started her equipment check. She was wearing some pants in green camouflage, a white sleeveless top and heavy army boots. In her holsters she put the small dart gun and one of the Uzis. She tried to swing the Kalashnikov round her shoulder but her backpack was in the way. She took the little thing off and stuffed some of the most important items in the pockets of her trousers. The sea was calm when she entered the deck. It was still dark outside but it wouldn't take long till dawn.

"You are lucky. That tropical storm drifted off towards the Caribbean", said Boris and scratched his chin. "Are you ready to go? I got the inflatable boat ready and the back."

Lara followed him to the rear of the yacht and climbed inside the small rubber boat. It was army green and had a small outboard motor.

Boris looked how she got in. "Good luck…" he said hesitatingly. "You'll need it…"

"No", said Lara. "Kurtis can use some luck, I'll be okay." She started the engine. "See you later, don't drink too much vodka."

He slowly opened his eyes and stared to the ceiling. For a while he followed the spinning paddles of the enormous fan that was hanging above his bed.

He looked around and found himself in an old fashioned hospital bed in a small room with four other beds. To the opposite of him laid two people, an old man who was sleeping and a younger guy who gave Kurtis a polite nod when their eyes crossed. The fourth bed next to him was covered with a white sheet, the body underneath didn't move.

The windows were covered by lamellae but they were only half closed so bright sunbeams fell into the room and formed a striped pattern on the floor and Kurtis' bed. It was completely quiet apart from the bleeps from medical equipment and vaguely the sound of traffic outside.

Kurtis felt thirsty and looked on the table next to him but there wasn't anything to drink. He tried to sit in his bed and put the pillow behind his back. Where was he and what happened? The last thing what Kurtis could remember was how somebody sneaked inside the house and killed Julio and Maria. That was way past midnight. He looked for a clock but couldn't find any, it wasn't dark outside anymore but the sunrise was early in this time of the year. Why wasn't he wearing a watch? He always had one around his wrist, where did he leave it? Kurtis grunted, he tried to think hard but his head ached. When he was at Julio he fainted and they had put him in bed. He had taken his watch off and put it on the small table with his gun, mobile phone and other personal belongings. Suddenly he remembered how he tried to pick up his gun but decided he was too weak to handle it. He wanted to pick it up when that intruder was inside the living room. And then… the window! Suddenly he remembered everything, how he escaped through the window and ran into the street, and… Bex! It was Bex who had killed Maria and Julio, that bloody witch! The last thing he could recall was how Bex was run over by a car. He looked around again in the small room, the beds, the low tables, some chairs for visitors. The ceiling looked scaled off and in some corners laid grit and sawdust. Then the figure under the blanket next to him caught his eye again. He sniffed nervously as he realised that it could be Bex. That moment he heard an echoing sound of footsteps in the corridor next to the room. A nurse entered the room and smiled when she saw him.

"Buenos dias señor. Soy alegre usted es despierto."

Kurtis cleared his throat. "Sorry, I don't speak Spanish."

"Okay sir, I'm happy to see you are awake."

He nodded slowly. "Yeah… yeah… what happened? I can't remember much."

"You and the lady ran to the middle of the street and caused some multiple car crashes. You were not wounded but unconscious. The ladies condition was worse, she died."

"I see…"

The women pointed at the figure under the blanket. "We're sorry she is still here, she should have been taken care of already. Did you know her?"

Kurtis shook his head. "No, I had never seen her before."

The nurse checked the sleeping old man. "We took some blood samples of her and found a high concentration of narcotic material in her blood. We guess she was a street robber."

Kurtis' lips curved up in a faint smile. "Yeah, I think that's it."

After she had checked the young gentleman she returned to Kurtis' bed. "Can I get you anything? It's still early in the morning so you can have some sleep but you have to leave today since you don't have any serious wounds."

Kurtis rested his head at the pillow. "Some water please. And can I make a phone call?"

The sea was calm and the morning sun was reflecting in the water. Lara was now able to see the island without binoculars. Thanks to the strong outboard motor the boat had reached a sufficient speed and it was a matter of ten minutes before she would reach the small bay.

While she plied the boat in the right direction to reach the bay she thought about what she actually was doing. Sailing to a small island in the Caribbean Sea to infiltrate into a military basis and steal an antiserum from a storage room. All this for a man she had met two years ago and who she again had been with for the last few days, Kurtis Trent. He was a good man, Lara thought. Strong and independent but not boastful, even a bit aloof and sometimes mysterious, he had a past. She had told Julio he was a friend but Lara wasn't really sure if Kurtis was her friend. He meant more to her then Zip for example, Zip was a nice guy but in the end just a mercenary. But he she didn't consider Kurtis either as a close friend like Father Patrick or Jean Ives. However, these two men were much older then she and she liked both of them in a way as you like an uncle or a neighbour. She couldn't really determine what kind of friend Kurtis was. A naïve person would probably assume she would fall in love with him, but that was nonsense. She hauled her shoulders and muttered to herself "Kurtis is just Kurtis, a nice guy, that's all."

The boat had reached the first cliffs of the bay and Lara had to put all her attention to the boat now. With a sharp turn she steered it inside the opening leading into the bay. The current got hold of the boat and dragged her towards the coast. She heard a grinding noise as the boat skimmed the bottom of the bay and turned off the motor. A few more bumps and she lay still.

Lara retrieved the Kalashnikov and stepped ashore. With a flapping sound a group of flamingos flew up and sailed over her head before the swarm of big pink birds made a majestic turn to left.

She swung the rifle round her back and made her way over a narrow pathway right through the mangrove woods. The soil made a squelchy sound at every footstep like she walking on a sponge. She saw little crabs dribbling around at the wet sand and little bugs, frogs and other small soil animals that inhabited this unique kind of environment. Further ahead of her Lara saw how the beach slowly turned into swamp.


	16. The Island

**XVI**

**The Island**

Because it was only early in the morning it wasn't yet very warm outside. Lara even noticed a little breeze and her bare arms felt slightly cold. You didn't had to be an expert though to know it would soon warm up to tropical standards. Lucky for Lara she was covered under the foliage of leaves. The air was filled with a cacophony of noises from the environment. She heard all kinds of birds, frogs, flying insects and the splashing sound of animals in the water.

The ground beneath her feet turned sloppier at every meter she walked and soon the water reached her ankles.

Lara looked around to see if she could continue her way somewhere higher. But on both sides of what now was a small stream was completely filled with trees and low growing vegetation. She continued her way and started to use stepping stones to move quicker. This way she moved deeper inside the jungle carefully hopping from stone to stone in the small stream.

She stood still on a big rock to take a rest and check her compass to see if she was still going in the right direction. According to the map she had to keep north, northwest to find the basis. Lara's surroundings were completely overshadowed by the trees now, but not far ahead of her she saw bright sunlight falling on the water. That meant there was an open space not far away from her. She put the compass back and hopped to the next rock in the small river. A few minutes later she looked out over a lake below her, the stream ended as a small waterfall splashing down in the pool that was about 25 meters wide, surrounded by the woods. From here she could see the blue sky again and she stood still for a while admiring the view. An enormous tree branch was hanging over the lake that almost reached to the other side. A thong of fuzzy beaver-like animals stood ashore and was busy eating grass. They were more then a meter in length and looked like giant guinea pigs. Lara had to dig in her memory to remember what kind of animal it was, a capybara. It quizzed her what it was doing here on an island near Cuba, capybaras only lived in South America and Panama.

Lara turned her attention again to what she was doing. The lake was only two meters below her but she decided not to jump, it was well possible the water contained alligators.

She looked around to see if she could make it to the side, fortunately the bush on the riverside was less heavy here and with a big leap she stepped on land. The ground was slippery though and Lara had to hold onto a vine to prevent her from falling backwards in the river. She stood up and followed a narrow path leading alongside a rocky slope looking down at the lake. The vegetation at the other side of the big pool seemed less thick, but she didn't know how to get there. Until the big branch caught her eye, she could climb in the tree from here and swing hand over hand to the other side of the lake.

With a grin of excitement Lara jumped and grabbed the branch and began to monkey swing towards the lake. The first ten meters seemed easy, the branch was strong enough to take her weight and it had a rough structure so she couldn't loose her grip.

But at the end it got more complicated, the branch didn't reach to the land and she either had to swim the last five meters or try to swing and jump to the shore.

Lara bit her lip when she carefully let one hand go to take the Kalashnikov from her shoulder and tossed it to the land. With a dull thud it landed on the sand and a flock of birds flew up scared by the noise.

Then she began to swing her legs backwards to generate speed for her jump. While doing this she saw how the hurdle of capybaras nervously ran away from the water. It was already too late when she saw a glaring pair of eyes and a green snout appearing at the surface. Lara lost her grip and splashed down in the water.

It took her four seconds to get her head above water again and while loudly coughing and sneezing she looked around to see if the alligator was coming her way.

She quickly began to swim to the shore but she could feel from the movement in the water that the predator was chasing her. She turned around and dived underwater, just a second before it launched its first attack. Years of experience with exotic animals taught her that the weak point of the alligator is the belly. And due the position of its eyes it doesn't have the ability to see what's happening below him. The water was still shaking wildly and Lara took advantage of the situation to swim under the alligator. She took the army knife from her leg band, stabbed it firmly into the belly of her opponent and made a big cut. With a loud growl the carnivore made a 180 degree flip causing a small tidal wave. Lara quickly swam the last few meters and climbed ashore, from there she watched how the animal's movements slowed down before it sank to the bottom of the lake.

Lara shook the water from her hair and tried to wring some out of her top. Luckily she had thrown the machinegun away before she fell. She checked her other two weapons, the Uzi was gone, properly during the fight with the alligator. Fortunately the dartgun was still in her holster and it worked on air pressure so it wasn't harmed by the water.

Igor Smertin walked up the stairs to the office of his boss. He knocked politely at the door and gave a short nod to the man standing next to it. "Privet", muffled the man but didn't move a muscle. Igor couldn't stand Alexei's personal body guards, they were all annoying and brash and only listened to their boss.

"Zahodi." called Alexei from inside and Igor entered the office.

He took off his hat and greeted the man sitting behind his desk and smoking a cigar while browsing through the phonebook. "Ah, welcome Igor. Any news from the other side of the world?"

Igor shook his head. "No, we lost contact with that British woman we hired. I don't know, she doesn't pick up her phone. I can try it later, it's early morning there at this moment, time difference you know."

Alexei nodded slowly and chew on his cigar. "I see, well I guess it all will be okay in the end. But what about this friend of Trent... erm... Shoukov?"

Smertin frowned. "Shoukov yes, Boris Shoukov, ex-KGB agent. What about him?"

"He's a good man, he knows a lot and isn't scared of money I think. Please do me a favour, when you talk to Rebecca Morris ask her if she can get us in contact with Shoukov, I got a nice offer for him."

Smertin stared out of the window. "What are your plans?"

Alexei rubbed his little beard. "When we started all this I thought the Lux was just a bunch of Christians who had a vague connection with the Templar Order based on fanatic believe. Well, I don't have to explain that, you were with me when we discovered their real identity."

"And now?" asked Smertin.

"Now I want to get out of this business. We can't get involved with this, not with our past. And if Trent finds out about our past we're all in big trouble. That's why he has to die."

Alexei blew a cloud of smoke to the ceiling and stared at Smertins back. "Our business is still too small, our powers to weak. We must avoid the Lux Veritatis."

Smertin turned around, "and what about the money? Kurtis got our donations, but a dead man can't hand over money."

"That's were I need Shoukov for", said Alexei and winked.

The warmth was like a woollen blanket strapped around her. Her clothes were wet from the dive in the pool and didn't dry up because the air was damp and sultry in these surroundings.

Lara had been walking through the woods for about 30 minutes now. After her encounter with the alligator she had followed the direction northwest which had taken her uphill on this overgrown island. Now she was standing on top of a hill and overlooked the landscape that stretched out to the little bay were she had arrived in the rubber boat. On the other side of the hill she could see a grassy valley with sandy roads, small rivers and small groups of trees. It lay between two mountain slopes, the one she was standing on and a smaller one which blocked her view to the base. The smaller hill wasn't that wooded, just a few trees brightened up the plain looking grasslands and rocky cliffs. An asphalt road went straight over the hill and with her binoculars she recognised a checkpoint at the top.

She began her trail downhill to get into the green valley. It started of hard as the way was steep and full of cracks and holes and she had to walk carefully not to loose balance. The surface was slippery since water streamed down the hill from little caverns. Small loose stones and rocks were shattered all over the place and sometimes caused small avalanches as Lara stepped on it.

But apart from a few bruises she made it safely to where the stone surface turned into sand and the slope got less steep.

Lara's knees hurt after the walk and she was happy to see that her way was slowly turning into flat land. But she hadn't just thought this or she tripped over a nasty crack and fell backwards to the ground. She tried to hold onto something and stand up again but with increasing speed she began to slide down the hill. She went faster and faster like a sled in the snow and felt stones and rocks sticking in her back and legs. The ride was almost over when she saw a group of trees quickly coming closer. In a last attempt not to smash with her legs against a trunk she tried to turn around and finally rolled on her side and got thrown with her shoulder against the tree.

With a grunt of pain Lara stood up and brushed the sand from her legs and arms. Her shoulder hurt pretty badly but it didn't seem too serious.

She looked around and saw that she made it to the valley. Just a few meters ahead the woods ended and a sandy path that should take her alongside the plain fields and peaceful rivers to the other smaller hill and from there to the checkpoint.

She remembered this place from Boris' description, the terrain was much more accessible from here but she also had to watch out for patrols.

Lara began to walk further northwards when she suddenly heard the heavy engine of a vehicle coming her way. She took cover behind a tree and carefully watched what was happening. A green Humvee approached from the east and passed her at low speed, it was slowing down.

She ducked and from the bushes she watched how two men got out of the car and pointed in her direction. "I'm pretty sure I saw something there", said one of them.

Lara decided not to wait any longer and carefully retrieved the dart gun from her holster. She aimed for the soldier closest to her and shot. "Hey!" yelled the man and grabbed his leg, but before he could pull out the dart he collapsed to the ground. The other man turned to his friend and bent over him to see what happened. A second dart from Lara's gun ended up in the inside of the guy's knee and he fell over his comrade.

Lara stood up and left her safe position to grab both men and drag them one by one to the place she just came from. There, hidden under the thick bushes she gagged them and tied their hands behind the back. She took the shirt and cap of one of them and put them on, both matched perfect with her combat trousers.

She fetched the ID card and car keys from the same man and took place at the driver's seat of the Humvee. A minute later she drove through the wide open space between the two mountains, hoping she would be able to fool the guard at the checkpoint.

Half an hour later Lara drove the car downhill and now she had a perfect view over the secret base on this small island. The guard at the checkpoint hadn't even taken the effort to come out of his guard house. Lara had reached out the car window to wave the ID card in front of his eyes for a second. The man had given her a short nod before letting her pass.

The base consisted of two low buildings, a garage and an enormous building that looked like a big shed or loading bay. The whole terrain was surrounded by a fence of strong looking gauze, the only entrance was a small gate guarded by two armed men.

She drove the Humvee to the gate and stopped. One of the two men ordered her to open the window and give him the ID card. Lara tried to stay calm and passed him the card.

"You were on patrol?"

Lara nodded.

"You're new here?"

"….Yes."

The man gave her the card back. "That's what I thought; you're part of the new group that arrived last week?"

"Yes, indeed."

The man stepped back. "Okay, you can pass. Enjoy your stay Private Gibbs."

Lara sighed silently of relief while driving the vehicle into the garage. She was lucky the card didn't show a photograph or a first name.

She got out of the car and looked around to see where she had to go. The first of the two low buildings looked like an office. Maybe the other one was a barrack where the dining hall and dormitory were situated, her chances lay in the big green building at the back. Some years ago the airplane with Kristina Boaz on board had crashed here and they had taken her luggage to this base because it contained suspicious material.

Lara followed a small pathway leading down the terrain to the loading bay. When she arrived she noticed that she had reached the other side of the island. A ship that was moored at a small dock blocked her view over the sea.

A big double door gave access to the building but it was firmly closed. Presumably they were used to get new cargo inside. Next to the big doors she found a smaller one leading inside an office and from there in the main building.

She entered and saw a short bald man in a dust-coat sitting behind a desk. He wiped some sweat of his forehead with a red handkerchief while scribbling something down with a small pencil. He looked up when he saw Lara. "What can I do for you?"

"I was ordered to get something from here", said Lara.

The man looked at a pile of papers on his desk. "Don't tell me you want one of those waybills. I've just ordered them neatly. It wasn't a nice job to do and my fan is broken too, can you report that? They never listen to me."

Lara shook her head. "No, I have to get something from inside… from one of the storage rooms."

"What exactly?" asked the man.

"Oh, I don't know. I just got a… serial number of a crate…"

The man grinned sarcastically, stood up and opened the door to the main building. Lara followed him and her mouth dropped open when she entered the enormous hall.

"It's a bunch of morons up in staff", said the guy.

Lara slowly let her eyes travel alongside the endless rows of wooden crates, all piled up like blocks of Lego. It highly reminded her of the closing scene of the Indy movie _'Raiders of the Lost Arc.'_

"Didn't they tell you anything about what you had to take from here? Was it just a crate or any specific type of weapon?"

Lara turned her head to the man again. "No, no, it was something else, not a weapon."

The man frowned. "Here on this level we only got weapons and ammunition. All these crates you are watching are filled with machineguns, rifles, rocket launchers, grenades and other ammunition. All the other material is stored downstairs in the underground facility."

Lara bit her tongue and tried to hide she was nervous. "Yeah, then I probably need to be there. Sorry, I just arrived a week ago with the other new recruits."

The man nodded. "I understand. Bunch of idiots those officers, aren't they? Well, I have worked her since I can remember. In the underground rooms they got the real shady stuff you know, that's the reason this base is secret. It's also not my responsibility; I only take care of this section." He looked around to see if somebody was watching them. "I don't know what they got there, but I heard it's some freaky business", he whispered. "Secret stuff you know. Not meant for the public eye. Anyway, the elevator is down this way and then to the left. Maybe if you give that serial number they're able to help you down there."

Lara thanked the man and followed his instructions. She entered the elevator and pressed the right button, the doors closed and the cabin made its way downwards.

When the doors opened again Lara found herself in a narrow round hallway. She felt like walking in a big metallic tube. Strip lighting was casting a glare white light over the corridor and apart from the buzzing sound from the fluorescent-tubes, it was completely quiet.

The absolute silence made Lara a little nervous; in combination with what the man upstairs had told her. She was scared, but not in a way as many people thought. Fear is something you have to overcome to create adrenaline. And adrenaline was what Lara lived for. People tend to say being brave means you're not afraid of anything. But the correct definition of bravery is the ability to handle fear and generate adrenaline that helps you to perform better.

It was much colder here then outside. Lara felt goosebumps on her arms as she carefully walked down the cylinder shaped corridor.

Her footsteps echoed on the metal floor and nothing in this empty place could tell her that she was on an island near Cuba.

She followed the hall until she reached a door firmly set into the wall. Only a small window gave her the opportunity to see what was behind. The first of a series of yellow signs told her that entrance was prohibited for unauthorized and violators would be shot. Further down she recognized the symbols of bio hazard and radioactivity.

"It's not meant for the public eye", had the man upstairs told her. Lara began to realize what it said. "Here are dangerous secrets kept and I'm not supposed to be here."

The door was locked but next to it she found a slot where she could put the ID card in. She heard a mechanic whir and a second later the door opened.

Lara carefully took a step inside, the corridor looked the same as the one she came from but further ahead it ended in a T-junction.

Next to her she saw a small desk with a number of screens showing different parts of the base. On the table she saw some plastic coffee cups, bloc notes, a walkie-talkie and a pile of ID cards.

A small door behind the desk was half opened and she heard someone browsing through some papers. Lara just decided to follow the hall deeper into the bunker when a man appeared from behind the door. "Hey, who are you!"

Lara stood still and turned around. Her heart was pondering in her chest but she felt calm, it would be okay.

"Sir, my name is Private Gibbs; I was sent her to collect some goods, sir."

The man frowned and examined her from top to toe, his arm showed the two stripes of a corporal.

"You're new?"

"Sir, yes sir."

"Why the heck did they sent you down here to get something. Only a select group of people are allowed to be here. Let me see your card please."

Lara took the ID card from her pocket and handed it to the man. The corporal studied it hard and shook his head.

"They could never have sent you down here. You are here for just a week and you're not even been instructed about what's kept in this place. You have a serious problem Private, this is a major violation."

Lara's brains began to work in high speed. She looked for a way to take the man out without making too much noise.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

She was a second away from kicking the man's crotch when the walkie-talkie came to live. "Corporal Hedrick?"

The man turned away from Lara and picked up the device. "Yes I'm here, sir."

"Hedrick, come to the barracks immediately."

"Sir, I got some serious case down here, and..."

"I don't care what you got, I want you here. We found two men gagged in the bushes just outside the base."

"I'm on my way sir."

Corporal Hedrick tucked the walkie-talkie in his pocket and looked somewhat confused at Lara. "I got your name. When I solved this I will take you to staff."

He pointed down the hall. "Report to some of the guards there and they'll tell you what to do. I have to go", and with that he disappeared behind the door. Through the little window Lara saw him running to the elevator.

She giggled nervously and walked down the hall, she got a kick out of this kind of things. When she arrived at the T-junction she carefully peered around the corner. To the left stood a guard with his back turned to her, the right hallway was empty.

Lara silently walked into the right corridor; it wasn't very long and ended with two doors. She opened the first one and dashed in.

It was completely dark and she switched on her torch to find her way. The room was about ten square meters and filled with plastic barrels. A quick look around was enough to say that apart from the barrels nothing was to be found here. Lara kneeled down next to one of the barrels and examined the label. In different languages it said the content was dangerous, she opened the lid two centimetres and peeked inside, powder.

"Anthrax", muffled Lara. "Not what I was looking for." She stood up and carefully opened the door back to the hall. The guard was still standing with his back to her. The corridor he was standing in was an exact copy as the one Lara came from.

Lara walked to the other door and tried to open it but without success. She decided to cross the junction into the second hallway. She could take out the guard and have a look at the other side before she would return here and try one of the lock picks Boris had given her.

With the gait of a panther she sneaked behind the guard grabbed his mouth while her other arm firmly pushed his chest to the ground. Before the young man knew what was happening she had hit him twice on the head and his body dropped unconscious on the floor.

Lara opened the door he was standing next to and again found herself in a dark room. She dragged the soldier inside before she spotted a switch. After pressing it a glare light appeared in the room and she could take a look around.

The room contained a few wooden crates, two rocket launchers, four enormous rolls of electric wire, five barrels with a radioactive symbol on it, a pile of rubber tires, two brown cardboard boxes, some grenades with inscription in Arabic and four suitcases.

She closed the door behind her and shoved the soldier to a corner of the room. It would take a while before he would come to life again. She checked the wooden crates; they were about one by one meter but both empty. The cardboard boxes were filled with little white balls. Then her eye met the suitcases, if there was any place where... She examined them closely and had to bit her tongue when she read the label.

_87/96 air crash, Mrs. Boaz._

With trembling hands she opened the suitcase and between some clothes and other unimportant things she found a small leather cassette. Inside Lara found one ampoule and an empty slot for a second one, a note dropped out of the cassette.

_Suspicious unknown liquid, one sample taken to lab. A.R_

"I got it", whispered Lara to herself and made a fist of her hand.

She tucked the cassette in one of the pockets of her combat trousers and turned around, time to take herself scarce.

That moment the lady heard a voice behind her. "What are you doing?"

Lara looked in the face of another soldier who was standing in the door. "What's happening here?" he asked. Lara was still thinking for an answer when the soldier pointed at the guard's body on the ground. "What happened to him? There are problems outside, two men are found gagged and…"

The young man paused and stared at the unconscious soldier and then in Lara's eyes. She noticed a sudden panic reaction when he realised she was the one they were looking for.

His hand moved to his gun but with the reflexes of a predator Lara managed to give him a firm kick against his wrist. The man screamed and took a step back, the same moment Lara punched him straight in the face. The soldier fell on the ground and breathed heavily while spitting some blood. A final kick to the side of his head made him faint.

Lara looked around and suddenly an idea popped up in her head. She opened two of the big empty wooden crates and dragged both soldiers inside. She quickly put the covers back on and locked them with big iron staples. While doing it she hummed a soldiers song her father had learned her.

"_If I die in the combat zone, box me up and send me home." _

Then the alarm went off.

Lara ran back to the hallway and stood still for a second to listen. She heard shouting voices in the distance and stamping feet above her. Back to the elevator was no option; she had to find another way out or try to hide somewhere.

Her eyes met the door she had been trying to open earlier. It was locked, but she had no time to try the lock pick she got. The woman bit her lip and took a run up, with a suppressed grunt she rammed her shoulder into the door and with loud cracking she went through it and stumbled on the floor. The room the door had been guarding was occupied with filling cabinets.

She grabbed one of the metal cases and pushed it in front of the door. That would give her some time to look around. One of the drawers fell out of the cabin and sheets flew through the room like leaves from a tree in the autumn. She saw photos of dead people and documents with a lot of seals and signs.

From this place she should get away. Luckily another locked door was set into the west wall. She took out her lock pick and kneeled down in front of the door. Carefully the adventurer began to squat the lock.

Meanwhile the voices had reached downstairs and she heard loud banging against the door. The filling cabinet seemed to do its job perfectly though.

Two minutes later she had opened the door and walked into a small crypt. Stairs lead upwards to a closed trapdoor. A small lever was set into the wall next to Lara. She pulled it and with a mechanic sound the trapdoor began to move. Bright daylight fell in the narrow room and when she climbed the stairs she could feel the tropical heath already.

Lara looked around; she was standing next to the loading bay. From here she could see the paths leading to the docks and back to the camp.

The alarm was ringing loudly here and from the barracks she heard people shouting to each other. The docks were empty apart from one big container ship. Escape by sea was no option; she had to do it the dangerous way.

Following the pathway would get her in the open field and that would result in a turkey shoot. Instead the woman walked down at the other side of the loading bay, covered by the wall. At the corner she peered around and saw the garage she had parked the Humvee in. It was no more then 20 meters away and only two soldiers were guarding it.

Lara took the Kalashnikov from her shoulder and began her run. After five meters the men noticed her and ordered her to stop. She released a long salvo from the machinegun, the loud rattling sound filled the air and both men got thrown to the floor.

She arrived safe and sound at the vehicle and got in. She drove out of the garage but immediately had to duck her head under the dashboard as a group of soldiers emerged from the barracks and laid down a hail of bullets on the car. Without looking where she was driving she stepped on the gas and spurted forwards, hopefully right into the group of people. She heard yelling and the bumping sound of people getting hit by the car and the fire eased off.

Lara looked up again and her eye caught a big gas tank standing next to the office building. She steered the car to the right and towards the gate. She raced out of the gate but in the last second she leaned out of the window and fired at the gas tank. While the Humvee with a roaring engine left the base she heard an indescribable explosion. The tank turned into a ball of fire and both the offices and the barracks got blown away. She saw burning material falling to the right and left of her and a smell of burning rubber felt her nose. But the Humvee seemed unharmed and she drove up the road to the checkpoint uphill.

The little guardhouse and the red and white striped lever came closer when she suddenly heard a car driving behind her. With one hand on the wheel she leaned out of the window and fired her Kalashnikov once more. The front window of the chasing car got shattered and the vehicle made a sudden move to the left. It balanced on two wheels for a second before rolling over and ending up upside down in a ditch alongside the road.

Lara got back inside again just in time to see how she rammed through the checkpoint. From there she drove downhill and into the valley where she had stolen the car from the patrol.

She carefully released a deep sigh. The last five minutes had been gone past like a film. She looked in the mirror and saw black clouds of smoke coming from the base. Luckily all the vegetation around the base was taken down otherwise the whole island would be set to fire.

She lowered the speed of the car somewhat and wiped some sweat from her forehead. Lady Croft breathed heavily and laughed of relief.

She opened the dashboard cabin and found a bottle of water, she took a swig. While coughing she retrieved the leather cassette from her pocket and grinned. "That was fun."


	17. You like cliffhangers, don't you?

**XVII **

**You Like Cliffhangers, Don't You?**

It was about noon when Lara and Boris returned to the apartment of the Velázquez family. After her spectacular escape from the base Lara had driven back to the bay where she had arrived by inflatable boat in the early morning.

The boat was still where she had left it and tired but with a feeling of accomplishment she had made her way back to Boris' yacht.

Now they were standing at the front door of the apartment of Julio and Maria. Boris knocked on the door. "Does it say somewhere how the antiserum should be used? I mean, does he need to drink it or inject it, or what?"

Lara took the cassette from her pocket and examined it from all angles but couldn't find any explanation. "I think it should be injected. Kurtis said the poison was multiplying itself in his blood." She paused and nodded to the door. "It's taking long, isn't it?"

Boris knocked again.

"Hello?" called Lara. "Anyone?"

It remained silent. Lara carefully turned the door-handle, the door opened. "That's strange...", she muttered." It's not even locked."

They both stepped inside and watched out over the living room. Boris was the first to react. "Dah blin!" he exclaimed in his native language. "What happened here?"

Julio lay with his head on the floor but his legs still rested on the couch. A big wound from his right hip to his left shoulder had been bleeding heavily. His head was pinned to the floor with a big bayonet. Maria had only been stabbed in her chest; the body of the woman was lying on the floor not far from her husband's.

Lara watched the scene with a mixture of disgrace and anger. She bit her lip and muttered something in herself. Then her eyes met the door to the bedroom, it was half opened. With two big leaps she reached it and kicked the door open. "Trent!"

For a fraction of a second she saw Kurtis on the floor, lifeless in a pool of blood. The next moment she saw an empty bed and her friend's shirt and personal belongings on a chair.

She turned around. Boris was still standing in the living room and looked at her. "Is he..?"

Lara shook her head. "No, the room is empty."

The man joined her in the room and examined the bed and Kurtis' clothes. "Only his shirt is here, all the other clothing is gone. His phone, wallet and gun are also still here and the bed is not been made. He left in a hurry."

Lara looked from the bedroom to the front door and back. "Assuming it's that Bex girl that killed Maria and Julio. She was after Kurtis as well so he cannot have escaped through that door. Plus he was very weak and not been able to defend himself."

Boris pointed to the window. "That window is opened. Maybe he escaped by climbing out of that window." He looked down the street. "It's a long drop but not impossible. There are some rubbish bags on the pavement."

Lara kneeled down and picked up something from the floor. "Where do these come from?" She held a few empty cartridges in her hand. "Those are from those types of guns in the airport locker in Buenos Aires. Both Bex and Kurtis had one", said Boris.

The ex-KGB man took Kurtis' gun from the chair and checked it. "It's fully loaded. So that means it was Bex who was standing here and fired out of this window. And it means Kurtis had jumped down."

Lara listened attentively while browsing through the other things Kurtis had left behind. "But where is he now?"

Boris wanted to say something but Lara interrupted him. "Wait", she said. "Maybe we find something in..." she grabbed the mobile phone and switched it on.

A short chime played and the little screen showed the main menu. Two seconds later it beeped twice and the screen changed. _You have one new message. Call 1200._

"He's got a message on his answer phone", said Lara happily and she dialed the number.

_"Welcome to Vodafone 1200. You have one new message. Message received today._

_Hello... anyone who hears this... it's me Kurtis. I'm in the hospital of Havana. Bex broke in and tried to kill me. I ended up here and Bex is dead. I'm at the second floor room 23."_

After his first wake up Kurtis had drank some water and had made it to the phone to try and call Boris. Unfortunately the connection could not been established, probably because he was with his yacht on open sea.

As a last resort he had phoned to himself and left a message on the voicemail. Hopefully Lara or Boris would hear it. If they had survived the trip to that island.

Trent still did not feel very well; he lay in the hospital bed and still had the dizzy spells. He dozed off sometimes and had delirium-like nightmares.

The nurse had ensured him he perhaps could stay a little longer if he really felt so bad but Kurtis knew he was in the final stage of the poisoning. If Lara wouldn't come quickly he was pretty much done with it.

Lara. If she would return with the antiserum what would she do? Give it to him and disappear again like she did two years ago? "I'm not the kind of person to stick around with people", she had said to him that time. But he had her missed her since, really missed her. He had begun to like her anarchistic spirit, flavoured with her brash approach and cynical sense of humor. He sometimes recognized himself in her can-do attitude. And unlike Boris, Lara had an optimistic nature and seemed to enjoy life.

Kurtis felt and another headache coming up and carefully rested his head on the pillow and took a deep breath.

"You like cliff-hangers, don't you?"

He opened his eyes again and looked in the face of the person he just had been thinking about. Not far from her stood the familiar figure of Boris, carrying his trenchcoat on one of his skinny arms.

"No time for sunbathing Boris?"

The man produced a faint smile. "I think we come just in time Kurt, that was a good trick, the voicemail."

Lara sat down on a chair next to him and showed him the leather cassette with the ampoule. "Thanks", said Kurtis while trying to keep his eyes open. "You saved my back again Croft."

Lara brushed a strand of hair from his forehead. "No problem, I'm beginning to get used to it. Where is Bex?"

Kurtis nodded to the empty bed next to him. "She has been taken to the morgue just a while ago. They left her stuff behind though."

Boris walked to the table next to the empty bed. "I'll have a look here while you give the antiserum Lara."

Lara produced a syringe from her pocket. "Snatched it from the room next door", she said with a grin. "Hope they don't mind."

"I certainly don't", said Kurtis and rolled up the sleeve of the shirt the nurse had given him.

Lara accurately opened the ampoule, put the needle in and filled the hypodermic syringe. "I brought your shirt together with your other stuff", she said before carefully injecting the antiserum in Kurtis' arm. "There you go, you're saved mate."

The American coughed and with a grunt tried to sit up. "I'm not feeling much better yet, guess it needs a while to kick in. Thanks again Lara." He grabbed her hand and squeezed it for a second.

Boris joined them and showed something he had found. "Look, it's her telephone, maybe we can..."

The phone ringed. Boris checked the screen and looked at Lara and Kurtis. "It's Smertin."

"Well?" said Kurtis.

"I don't know!"

Lara yanked the phone from his hand. "Here, let me try it." she pressed the receive button.

"Hello."

"Bex? Is that you?" said a male voice.

"Yup."

"Oh good, the line is very bad. Is Kurtis Trent dead?"

"...Yes."

"Good, good, excellent work. When you're back in Europe you'll get your fee."

"Fine."

"Now listen, Alexei wants to make a deal with this Boris Shoukov. Do you think you can ask him if he's interested?"

"...erm... yeah, yeah sure."

"Perfect, I'll hear from you later."

"Okay bye."

"See ya Bex."

Lara switched off the phone and handed it back to Boris. Then she explained what she had told to Smertin.

Boris smiled happily and patted her on the shoulder. "You're a smart lady. This is a great opportunity."

Kurtis looked at him. "Apart from the fact that you are smiling for the first time since 1876 I don't understand fully what's so great about this."

Boris sighed impatiently. "We've to take this two Mafiosi out. Now we can easily lure them by saying that I'm going to work with them."


	18. Where roads do part

**IIXX **

**Where Roads Do Part**

It was in the early evening when the three people sat in the departure hall of the Jose Marti airport of Havana. They each had bought a ticket home for tonight and were now sitting and waiting for the flight to be announced.

It wasn't very busy in the airport, only a small group of tourists was standing in front of a big screen showing departures. A homeless man was sitting under a pillar and sang with a strong timbre while accompanying himself on the bongos. The music and his voice filled the air and echoed through the big hall. A cleaner leaned lazy on his mop and swept some soapy water over the floor. He spread a piercing smell of cheap beeswax at every spot he passed.

Kurtis felt a lot better already, he was still weak and tired but at least he could function normally again. The headache, dizzy spells and frightening hallucinations were gone.

Boris had phoned to Igor Smertin and told the guy that he wanted to work for him. Smertin had explained that their gang wanted to get out of the Lux Veritatis. They had neutralised Kurtis because they found he knew too much. The final thing they wanted before they would finally turn their backs to the LV was Kurtis' money. They had invested a total sum of 80.000 euro in the cult and would very much like to have it back. Boris had seen it as an ultimate way to trick both men and told he had access to Kurtis' money and would collect it for them.

"The boarding for my flight to London is in a few minutes", announced Lara. She had joined both men at their gate for the flight to Moscow.

Kurtis looked up and nodded slowly. "So I guess you have to go now?" He took a packet of cigars from his pocket. He had bought them in a local shop and they were real Cuban cigars. He lit one with a match and released a delightful growl at the first pull.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us and help to take out Smertin and the other mobster?" said Boris without showing if he was joking or not.

"No, I leave that to you", said Lara kindly but firm. "I came here to find a treasure inside that temple in Argentina. It was… fun to run into you again, and I'm glad we found that antiserum. But now it's time for me to go my own way again."

Trent couldn't hide a mixed feeling of disappointment and irresolution. He didn't want her to leave but had no clue what reason they had to stay together. "Yeah, I'm sorry you didn't find those golden cups you were looking for", he said. "But it was good being with you… and thanks again."

Lara stood up from her seat and Kurtis did the same. They stood face to face, both not sure what to do. Kurtis silently hated himself as he felt clumsy and awkward. He was still holding the cigar which seemed very rude in his eyes but he didn't want to throw it away. Finally he tried to hide it casually behind his back. "Well… erm… goodbye then… I… " he raised his hand but pulled it back again, shaking hands didn't seem very suitable.

Lara smiled at him. "I'm not very good at goodbyes", she said. "In Argentina you said you wanted to talk with me about your experiences. Maybe you can drop by, some time." She took a step forward and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Take care, Trent." Then she turned around and walked away without looking back. Kurtis watched her leaving. When she was out of sight he turned around and sat down next to Boris again.

"Are you going to drop by, some time?" informed his friend.

Kurtis remained silent. "Nah", he finally said. "I don't have any excuse."

"She said you wanted to talk."

"That ain't no excuse", said Kurtis curtly and blew a cloud of smoke in Boris' face.


	19. Two Weeks Later

**IXX**

**Moscow, Two Weeks Later**

The skinny figure of Boris Shoukov sat in Kurtis' black Mercedes somewhere in a street in the Russian capital. It was late April but still chilly outside. The car was parked under a big tree and the lamps were dimmed. A couple of hundred meters from where he was, stood the house of Alexei, the Russian gang boss. Boris and Igor Smertin had agreed that the handover of Kurtis' money would take place this evening.

It was quiet in the car. Boris patiently rubbed the chin of his weathered face and stared in the rear mirror. In his grey eyes he saw a mixture of concentration and calmness, Boris had been through this kind of emotions before. He looked at the empty driver seat and drummed with his fingers on the dashboard. That moment he saw a familiar figure crossing the street.

Kurtis quickly looked left and right before making his way to the car. He was carrying a paper bag with a big yellow M on it.

Boris opened the door and welcomed him in. "That was quick."

Kurtis sat down and put the bag at Boris' lap. "It wasn't very busy and they're just here around the corner."

Boris tore the bag open. "Anyway, I hope you got everything." He poked his nose inside and muffled something inaudible. "Two sacks of French fries, two coffees, a hamburger and... What happened to my fish fingers?"

Kurtis slammed the door shut and adjusted his chair a bit to make more room for his legs. "They were out of stock; I got you a salad instead."

Boris put up a face like he was eating shaving foam. "Salad? Do you think I'm a rabbit? Couldn't you get me a hamburger as well?"

"Hamburgers are fattening", said Kurtis dryly. "I really think you're gaining too much weight."

Boris stared at him for a second before he decided to ignore his friends' humour. "Well, thanks a lot", he muttered and stuffed a few fries in his mouth.

"What's the plan?" said Kurtis while sipping from his coffee. "The handover takes place inside or at the driveway?"

Boris nodded. "Yes, at the driveway. Igor and Alexei will meet me both at the front door and I will tell them that I got the briefcases with the money in the trunk of the car."

"Shouldn't Bex come as well?" asked Kurtis.

"Yes, they think Bex is still alive and you are dead. They asked me to bring Bex along so she could collect her fee for killing you."

The American leaned back and took a bite from his hamburger. "Okay right, so you'll tell them Bex is ill or whatever. All that time I'm waiting behind a tree or something or in a dark alley next to the house."

It was Boris' turn to nod again. "Yes, I make them to follow me to the back of the car. That moment you appear from your safe spot and shoot them both."

"What kind of equipment you got for me?" Kurtis informed.

"You can use your own gun, but if you want I also have a Kalashnikov at the backseat", said Boris while pointing behind him with his thumb.

"That'll be enough to save the future of the Lux Veritatis", sighed Kurtis. "You know Boris, after we settled this I really think we should make a fresh start. I mean, look at what happened to the cult. It's a group of wizkids and rednecks who all are far from reliable. And I believe most of them still don't fully understand what it is all about. Look at that guy in Argentina, he was a nice man for sure. But a popstar in all his manners, he had no idea what the origins of the LV are. What the cult once was."

Boris looked at him. "What do you want then? Take it back to the sixteenth century? Fight with swords and live in monasteries?"

Kurtis looked annoyed and shook his head. "No, not that. But just a bit of the authentic feeling, just to make the people aware of whom we are. I want a castle in Scotland to arrange our meetings. I want to use the old rules and rituals, sing the ancient hymns together. New members should be consecrated. Only then, everybody will understand what we really are and will be able to do his job with all devotion and dedication needed."

They both remained silent for ten minutes and ate their takeaway food. When they were finished Kurtis took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

"Are you ready to go?" asked Boris while taking the last swig of his coffee.

Kurtis coughed and rubbed his cheekbones. "Yeah... let's do it. So, it's Igor Smertin and that Alexei guy? What's his last name by the way?"

"Korneev", said Boris.

Kurtis frowned. "Korneev?"

"Yes, why?"

"No, nothing."

Kurtis got out of the car and Boris took place at the driver seat. He started the car and carefully drove through the dark lane past the other big houses to the place where the handover would take place. He drove slowly so Kurtis could follow him by foot. When they reached the driveway of the right house Boris opened the car window and poked his head out.

"You found a safe spot?"

Kurtis pointed at the fence surrounding the house. A brick wall reached to one meter, from there it passed into iron grating. He crouched behind the brick wall not far from the entrance gate.

Boris put his thumb up and closed the window again. He drove the car to the gate and pressed the button. A few seconds later the gate opened and the black Mercedes drove up the terrain. From where he was crouching Kurtis spied through the iron grating and watched how his friend got out and walked to the front door. The door opened and a man welcomed Boris, Kurtis recognized Igor Smertin. They spoke to each other but were to far away for him to hear.

"Where's Bex?" asked Smertin.

"She couldn't come", replied Boris calmly. "Maybe you can contact her later."

Smertin hauled his shoulders. "Perhaps. You got the money?"

"Yes...", said Boris. "But where's Alexei?"

"In his room", said Smertin while pointing inside the house. "He said I could handle this alone."

Boris bit his cheek and fought against his panic. "Erm... it's really important... you can't carry those briefcases alone..."

Smertin hauled his shoulders again. "You can give me a hand, can't you?"

"But we agreed Alexei would be present..."

"Yes we did… but, hey... what does it matter? You get your reward anyway, nobody cares if it's just me or us both."

To avoid getting more suspicious Boris walked to the car. "Okay, I got the briefcases in the trunk."

Smertin followed him. "Hey, isn't that Trent's car?"

Kurtis couldn't hear the speech but he understood well enough that something was wrong. The other mobster wasn't present and Smertin did not seem fully convinced. They both were standing near the trunk and now he could overhear them. His knees hurt but he didn't want to move or Smertin might see his shadow moving in the light of the streetlamp.

"Here we got the briefcases", said Boris.

Smertin stood a few meters away from him. "Well?"

"If you come here, I'll give them to you", Boris explained.

But instead of coming closer Smertin took a step back. "You're acting suspiciously Shoukov. What's going on?"

Kurtis decided that the plan was now officially failed and that he had to swing into action. He stood up and ran to the two men standing at the car. He pulled out his gun and fired at Smertin.

"Svolochi!" exclaimed the Mafioso and ducked to the ground.

He took a revolver from his pocket and fired two shots before he turned around and dashed back into the house.

Boris yelled and grabbed his shoulder, Kurtis stopped to see where the guy was hit.

"I'm okay", snarled Boris. "Go inside and waste those two smucks."

Kurtis took the Kalashnikov and followed the way Smertin went. The front door was still open and the light from the hall fell into the porch.

Kurtis entered the building and found himself in a big main hall. A wooden staircase was leading up to a broad landing overlooking the hall. Smertin was running up, taking several stairs at once and tumbling over. He grabbed the banister and got on his feet again, he turned around and pulled out his gun when he saw Kurtis.

But he was too late, the American fired the machinegun from the hip and hosed his former investor down. Smertin released a last scream before he collapsed and rolled down the stairs. His lifeless body fell with a dull thud on the carpet floor.

Kurtis didn't get much time to take a breather as he heard voices and footsteps on the landing. Not much later heads appeared above the balustrade, Alexei's bodyguards.

He took the machinegun in two hands and fired a long salvo at the landing. He saw a few men being perforated, others ducked away in time. Even before the last bullet left the gun Kurtis dived to the left and rolled to the side. A hail of bullets hammered down on the spot he had been standing.

Kurtis got on his feet again and began to run up the stairs. On his way he took his chirugai from his belt and cast it to the remaining people at the landing. With a rustling sound the metallic disc cut through the air. Even before the two bodyguards knew what was happening Kurtis' weapon had sliced their heads off. With a sharp turn like an Australian boomerang the chirugai flew back the way it came. Kurtis reached out and grabbed it firmly. "I missed you there in Cuba", he said before putting it back at his belt.

He looked at the dead men in front of him. Four of them had been carrying Kalashnikov's, he gratefully collected their unused ammo.

Where would the office of the boss be? Kurtis looked around, there were a lot of doors here. But before he could make a decision one of those doors flew open and another pack of bodyguards stormed up the landing.

The American turned around and dashed into the corridor behind him. The men had seen him and he heard their shouting voices behind his back.

He took a random door and stumbled inside a room with a lot of bookcases and cupboards. In the middle stood two armchairs and an antique table. The next moment he heard a gunshot and the door got perforated. Splinters flew around his ears and a few ricocheting bullets made a whistling sound. Kurtis got up, grabbed the table and shove it in front of the door. Then he disappeared behind another door to the left. He entered a similar room from which he could take a door back to the corridor where he came from. He carefully poked his head out and saw three bodyguards standing around the perforated door. He fired his machinegun and saw two of them collapsing, blood spurted out of their heads. A third one stayed unharmed and fired at him with a sawed off shotgun. Kurtis jumped back into the room. He took cover behind a couch and took out the empty clip of his gun. From his pocket he got a new one and slapped the clip into the Kalashnikov. The next moment the door flew open and the man with the shotgun entered. He fired two times, the bullets hit the wall behind the couch. Kurtis took a deep breath, got up, fired a short salvo at the man and dived back behind the couch. It all went so fast he did not have the time to aim well. However, the man seemed to be hit. He carefully peered around the corner of the couch and saw the man on the floor, but he wasn't dead.

Kurtis stood up and with a big leap he reached the man. He kicked the shotgun out of his hand and kneeled down next to him. The man was wounded in his shoulder and chest and breathed slowly. An oppressive sound came from his throat; he was choking in his own blood. "Where's your boss!" yelled Kurtis.

"Go to hell..." sighed the man.

Kurtis angrily pointed the barrel of the gun between the man's eyes. "And now tell me where he is!"

The man angrily grunted and tried to lift his arm to hit Kurtis. But Kurtis could easily push the man's arm back. He gave the bodyguard a firm punch at his jaw and grabbed the collar of his shirt. "Don't play games with me buddy!"

The man coughed and nodded in panic. "Okay, okay... easy... he is at this floor. Take the door we came from and then the second room on the left."

"Thanks." said Kurtis and released the man from his grab. The guy made a retching sound and grabbed the wound at his chest. The next moment he stopped breathing.

Alexei Korneev sat at the desk of his office. He had no idea what exactly was happening but he knew something was terribly wrong. The shooting had stopped but none of his bodyguards had reported back at his office, he realized that this could mean only one thing.

The last bodyguard he had was standing next to his desk. "Go and see what's going on", ordered Alexei.

The man gave him a short nod, took a revolver from the desk and left the room. He had only been away for a moment when a loud bang filled the air. And it certainly wasn't the sound of the revolver.

Now Alexei got scared. With shaking hands he took his cigar out of his mouth and put it in the ashtray. He crouched down and tried to hide behind his table, only his eyes were sticking out above the desk.

The next moment the whole door flew out of its hinges and slammed down on the floor making a terrible noise. The same moment a thing that looked most like a flying razorblade flew into him and stabbed into the back wall, just a centimetre from Alexei's head. A young man burst into the office, his azure blue eyes stared at Alexei and he brushed a strand of brown hair from his forehead. The man was holding a Kalashnikov in one hand and a sawed off shotgun in the other.

"...Kurtis Trent..." said Alexei slowly."But... you..."

Kurtis nodded. "I'm supposed to be dead", he said with a calm voice. "But I ain't."

"Are you coming to kill me?"

Kurtis dropped the shotgun and swung the machinegun round his shoulder. Apparently he sensed that Alexei was harmless now.

"Maybe", he said. "But first I want to know why you joined the Lux Veritatis, why you decided to leave the order and why you wanted me dead."

Alexei stood up and sat at his chair. "I will tell you", he said with a flat voice. He carefully pointed at a bottle of vodka on his desk. "Can I...?"

"Sure."

With trembling hands he took the bottle and poured a glass full.

"When I heard about the Lux Veritatis I thought it was a group of young people who formed a sect of some kind", he began and took a swig of the vodka.

"Bit of an ultra radical group, like the Opus Dei. We thought it would be an interesting party to do business with. You needed money and we could provide you with money. The LV would be a safe harbour for dirty money, nobody suspects a religious group. Plus you could provide us with contacts over the whole world."

Kurtis had taken a seat at the other side of the desk. "But then you decided to abandon the whole thing."

"Yes, and that was because we found out that the Lux is an ancient order of warriors. An offshoot of the Templars, though not focused on religion itself but on the suppressing of witchcraft, Satanism and alchemy." he paused. "However, the final confirmation came when we heard you went to South America to look for something of Kristina Boaz."

Kurtis looked surprised. "Why?"

"Because", Alexei coughed and bit his lip. "No, let's start from the beginning. In 1991 we tried to extend our business to Eastern Europe. We are only a small family in Russia, you see. We found a contact in Prague at the barrister office _Smicer, Ruzic & Karel. _They helped us to build a network of customers. The first client we got was a shady organization called Cabal."

Kurtis mouth dropped open in horror. He looked at Korneev but didn't know what to say.

"You worked with the Cabal...?" he finally said.

The man in front of him gulped the remaining vodka down his throat. "Yes, and all our deals were arranged by Kristina Boaz."

Kurtis still couldn't believe his ears. "What kind of deals you made?" he asked.

"About money mostly, we paid them in exchange for protection or clearing up crime scenes. I think she used the bodies for their disgusting projects. And they also sold us goods sometimes." he nodded to a small suitcase standing in a corner of the room. "Kristina sold me that not long before she got killed."

Kurtis grinned nervously and stood up. "So that was the reason? It was all because of Kristina Boaz. And when I started the research on her you got scared that I would find out about your deals with her."

"Exactly."

Kurtis smiled and raised the machinegun. "Thanks for the information, all is cleared up now. I can start and rebuild my organization."

Alexei held up his hands. "Don't shoot me, please."

Kurtis shook his head. "You worked together with an organization who practiced alchemy on innocent people and who murdered my father. You messed up my initiative to revive the Lux Veritatis and you used a desperate girl to hunt me down in Cuba. And you're a Mafia boss, earning money over other people's misery. Sorry."

Kurtis pulled the trigger and the rattling sound of the Kalashnikov filled the room. A rain of bullets hit Alexei in the chest, an uneven pattern of red stains appeared at his shirt. He got thrown to the back wall and slid down to the floor in a pool of blood. But Kurtis kept shooting and mowing the gun from left to right. The glass and the bottle got blown to pieces. Papers and documents from the desk flew up, wood splinters got blown from the desk and the glasswork of a cupboard got smashed. He stopped when the cartridge was empty.

He breathed heavily, wiped sweat from his forehead and dropped the gun to the ground. He felt a bit sad and lonely standing here and got a bit embarrassed of this aggressive act but at least all was finished now.

He wanted to turn around and leave the house when his eyes met the small suitcase standing next to the desk.

"Kristina sold me that not long before she got killed", had Korneev said.

Kurtis picked the little suitcase and opened it. When he saw what was inside he began to laugh. Tears rolled over his cheeks, but he wasn't sure if it was because of laughter or sudden emotion and relief. While laughing he closed the suitcase again and carried it under his arm back to the main hall.

He was still grinning when he returned to the car and saw Boris leaning to the bonnet.

"Kurtis, you made it!" said Boris happy. "But what's so funny?"

"Nothing special. How are you doing Boris?"

The guy pointed at his shoulder. "It went in there, but not too deep, I'll survive."

Kurtis helped him in the car and took place next to him. He tossed the suitcase at the backseats and started the car.

"What you got there?" asked Boris.

Kurtis grinned wide. "An excuse", he said jolly.


	20. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

In the morning they had seen some rainy showers but now the clouds had drifted to the east and a bright spring sun cast its beams over the grassy hills of the Surrey countryside.

Raindrops were hanging from the leafy trees at Croft Manor and twinkled in the sun. The mansion lay majestically at the end of a broad gravel driveway. A concrete fountain marked an intersection, taking the way in four directions across the front lawn.

From the back an enormous garden stretched out to the south, giving room to trees, hedges and lawns. Closer to the house a tiled terrace was situated near an ivy-grown wall, from there a small pathway was leading to an assault course.

The door of the bay window at the backside of the house swung open and a woman dressed in some linen pants and a shirt stepped outside. Tones of Mozart's 40th symphony came from inside and seem to escort the lady on her way out. Her hair was hanging loose at her shoulders and under her arm she carried a book.

Lara walked up to some terrace chairs standing in front of the kitchen window. She pulled the sleeve of her shirt over her left hand and wiped some water from the chair before sitting down. It was very quiet and peaceful here, she heard birds singing in the trees and a soft rustling sound of a slight breeze in the tree tops.

She settled down with her book and enjoyed this relaxing moment. A few weeks had gone past since she had returned from Cuba. Without a real trophy this time but at least she was alive and already doing research for new hidden treasures or unsolved secrets around the globe. She didn't really think see would see Kurtis Trent again. He seemed born with the same stubbornness as she and wouldn't come round just to chat. Lara was not sure if she regretted that or not.

She was about to turn her attention to the book again when the familiar figure of Winston appeared at the door.

"Lady Croft?"

She looked up and put the book down. "Yes?"

"You have a guest, he is waiting at the front door. Shall I let him in?"

"Who is it?"

"He didn't say."

"Okay, let him come."

The old butler shuffled back into the house and returned two minutes later with Kurtis at his tail. Lara stared at him for a moment before she produced a grin.

"I would've never thought..."

"Miracles happen all the time", said Kurtis with a smirk. He was wearing some bleached jeans, leather shoes and a neatly ironed white shirt. A packet of cigars was sticking out of his pocket and he carried a small suitcase.

"Have a seat", said Lara without standing up. "What would you like to drink?"

Kurtis sat down on a chair next to her and dropped the suitcase at the ground.

"Anything."

Lara turned to Winston. "Winston, bring us a bottle of Pimms and two glasses please."

Kurtis looked around and seemed impressed. "You live nice here", he said. "Very British."

Lara smiled. "What brings you here Trent?"

Kurtis laid his hands in his neck and stared at the sky for a few seconds.

"I have something for you that will make you very happy I think. But now I'm here we might also be able to just... talk a bit."

Winston returned carrying a tray with Pimms and two glasses. Lara took it from him and poured Kurtis and herself a glass of the pink beverage.

"What you have for me?" she asked curiously.

Kurtis picked up the suitcase and gave it to Lara. "I found this at the office of Smertin's boss."

"Are they dead?"

"Yes."

Lara zipped the suitcase open and looked inside. She stared at the content and from there back to Kurtis.

"Kurt, this is unbelievable."

In the suitcase she saw three cups of pure gold. They were engraved in a beautiful pattern of lines and figures. Lara immediately recognized the artwork of the native people of South America.

"These are the cups from the temple in Patagonia", Lara exclaimed. "How did they end up in Moscow?"

Kurtis happily watched her amazement. "Kristina Boaz sold them to Alexei Korneev the mob boss who worked with the Cabal for a few years."

"Korneev?", said Lara. "Oh yes, of course! That was the name mentioned in her diary. Remember how I told you in the hotel room in Buenos Aires?"

Now it was Kurtis' turn to look surprised. "Oh yeah, now I remember", he said. "I knew I had heard that name before."

Lara placed the cups in front of her at the table and watched them closely.

"Thanks Kurtis, these will find a place in my trophy room."

They sat together for a while drinking Pimms and enjoying the nice weather.

"So, you want to talk", asked Lara eventually.

"About our experiences", said Kurtis and laughed awkwardly. "We've seen a lot Lara..."

"We did", said the lady. "I have lived this life for years. Traveling around the world, getting myself into trouble… but always find my way out."

Kurtis looked at her. "Where have you been?"

"All over the world, believe me. From Antarctica to India. I could tell stories..."

"I bet", said Kurtis and moved a little closer.

Lara looked in his eyes and smiled. "In a cheap movie", she said. "I should now say that I love you and start kissing you passionately."

"But I'm not like that", she added and gently pushed his face back with two fingers.

Kurtis tried to hide his disappointment and took a swig of his drink.

Lara watched him. "But you're a nice guy, you should come round more often", she said and kissed him playfully on his ear.

**The End **


End file.
